A US weapons manufacturer that provides phone tracking devices and other equipment to the Israeli military and US immigration authorities. It used to provide surveillance technologies for use along the US–Mexico border and at Israeli military checkpoints.
L3Harris Technologies is a U.S. military contractor, headquartered in Melbourne, Fla., that manufactures surveillance equipment and electronic warfare technologies for military and law enforcement applications. The company formed in 2019 as a merger of L3 Technologies (formerly L-3 Communications) and Harris Corporation. As of 2022, L3Harris is the 12th-largest weapons manufacturer in the world. It has government customers in more than 100 countries, and 76% of its revenue is attributed to sales to the U.S. government, including through foreign military sales.
Immigrant Surveillance in the US
Since the early 2000s, both L3 and Harris have regularly contracted with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), providing the agencies with surveillance and monitoring technologies. The company was highlighted as being one of 14 “giants in the border security business” from 2006–2018. Between 2010 and 2023, the company held contracts worth at least $154.2 million by CBP and ICE.
L3Harris provides cell-site simulators to military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies around the world, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Also known as IMSI-catchers or Stingrays, cell-site simulators mimic legitimate cell phone towers and trick phones within a certain radius into connecting to them rather than a tower, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This enables ICE and other immigration authorities to pinpoint the location of mobile devices or to identify phone numbers within a certain area, thereby enabling them to more effectively track the movements of the immigrants they target. More advanced models can also intercept or disrupt communications.
Until 2015, federal agencies’ use of this technology did not require a warrant and was kept secret. However, it is known that the Federal Bureau of Investigations has been using cell-site simulators and lending them to local law enforcement agencies since at least 1995. Since at least 2005, ICE has had Harris Stingray devices and has been using them to locate undocumented immigrants.
As early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded local law enforcement grants to purchase their own cell-site simulators. While many police departments across the U.S. secretly used Stingrays and other similar Harris products, the company started quietly refusing to sell them to local law enforcement agencies in 2020.
Around 2016, ICE upgraded its devices from the Stingray to a new Harris-made model called Crossbow. Within nine months during 2019, ICE deployed cell-site simulators 134 times, locating at least 80 people, 22 of whom were arrested, according to the ACLU. As of 2020, ICE was still using Crossbow.
Other than cell-site simulators, L3Harris also provides products and services to DHS for its communications systems. In 2022, for example, the company was awarded a three-year contract worth a potential $4.3 million for providing ICE with equipment used to “determine the location of targeted mobile handsets to investigate crimes and threats.” Until the end of September 2023, the company held a small contract with ICE for unspecified equipment training.
Past Border Militarization: Blimps and Drones
Until 2017, Harris Corporation was the primary contractor for CBP’s Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) for monitoring the U.S.–Mexico border. Hovering 10,000 feet above ground, TARS are large helium-filled, blimp-like, unmanned aircraft equipped with surveillance systems for long-range intelligence gathering. TARS units are installed at eight sites along the U.S.–Mexico border in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Some TARS blimps are equipped with video cameras that CBP uses to track pedestrians and vehicles.
The use of TARS blimps along the border started as a program of the U.S. Air Force and was assumed by CBP in 2013. The first known contract was awarded to ITT Corp in 2008. The company split in 2011 and the contract went to Exelis Corp, which in turn was acquired by Harris in 2015. Two years later, in 2017, Harris sold this part of its business to private-equity backed Peraton Technologies, which was contracted for this again in 2022. Lockheed Martin also participated in CBP’s aerostat project.
Until 2021, L3Harris also provided training for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, including the ones used by CBP. L3Harris designed the Predator/Reaper Mission Aircrew Training System (PMATS), a flight simulator for General Atomics’ Predator and Reaper drones, which are also used by CBP to monitor the U.S.–Mexico border. The program is operated by the U.S. Air Force and trained CBP agents. In June 2021, L3Harris sold its military training business, which included PMATS, to Canadian company CAE Inc.
L3Harris was also involved in CBP’s defunct Secure Border Initiative Network (SBINet), aimed at creating a "virtual fence" along the U.S.–Mexico border in Arizona. The company was subcontracted in 2006 by Boeing, the main contractor for SBINet. In 2011, the entire project was terminated by DHS.
Weapon Components Used in Attacks on Civilians and War Crimes
L3Harris components are integrated into multiple weapon systems used by the Israeli military, including Israel’s air-to-ground bombs as well as its main warplanes, battle tanks, and warships. These weapons have been used repeatedly in attacks on densely populated civilian areas, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza and Lebanon, in what at times amounts to war crimes.
L3Harris makes components for the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) guidance kit, a Boeing product which converts unguided air-to-ground bombs into precision “smart” bombs. In 2012, L3 subsidiary KDI Precision Products participated in a $647 million contract to sell at least 11,500 JDAM bomb fuses to Israel through the U.S. foreign military sales program.
Israel has repeatedly used JDAM-guided bombs against civilians in Gaza. During Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, these bombs killed at least 166 people, including 89 children, in what the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted as potential war crimes.
During Israel’s May 2021 assault on Gaza, JDAM-guided bombs were one of the main weapons used, and were directly linked to the killing of at least 44 civilians in the bombing of al-Wahda street. Israel also used JDAM-guided bombs to destroy a high-rise that housed several media headquarters, including the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, in addition to residential apartments. Several of Israel’s attacks during this assault amounted to war crimes according to Human Rights Watch.
L3Harris claims to be one of the top five suppliers for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 aircraft, one of Israel’s primary warplanes. The F-35 was used for the first time in a major assault on Gaza in May 2021, in which Israeli airstrikes were the principal cause of killing. L3Harris manufactures over 1600 components for each F-35 plane, including weapon release systems.
L3 also manufactured the management systems for Israel’s Sa’ar 5 and Sa’ar 6 warships, made by Northrop Grumman and ThyssenKrupp, respectively. These warships form the main battle force of the Israeli Navy, which enforces the illegal naval siege of the Gaza Strip. According to U.N. human rights experts, the siege is a form of collective punishment in violation of international law. Sa’ar 5 warships also participated in the Israeli attack on the unarmed Free Gaza Flotilla in 2010, resulting in the killing of ten humanitarian activists. The International Criminal Court stated war crimes were likely committed during the attack.
L3Harris’s former subsidiary L3 Combat Propulsion Systems manufactured the engine of several ground combat vehicles, including the Merkava IV, Israel’s main battle tank. Israel used this tank extensively in its 2006 invasion of Lebanon and its 2012, 2014, and 2021 assaults on Gaza. Artillery and tank shelling killed at least 81 children during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, according to Defense for Children International. Israeli soldiers also reported using tanks to purposefully destroy Palestinian agricultural lands.
The Merkava diesel engine was produced between 2002-2006 by L3 Combat Propulsion Systems (formerly a division of General Dynamics) together with Rolls-Royce subsidiary MTU. In 2011, L3 received a multi-year contract from the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply diesel engines for its Merkava tanks and armored personnel carriers. The value and length of the contract are classified. L3Harris sold Combat Propulsion Systems in July 2021 to German company Renk.
In the past, L3 also supplied Israel with screening technologies used at several illegal military checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territory. The company’s SafeView body scanner machines have been installed in the Qalandia, Bethlehem, and Sha’ar Efraim (Irtach) checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. In addition, L3 SafeView and ProVision scanners have been installed in the Erez checkpoint in the Gaza Strip. In 2020, L3Harris sold its airport security business, which includes the SafeView and ProVision systems to Leidos.
- On April 26, 2017, University of Wisconsin-Madison students passed a resolution calling the university to divest from private prisons and corporations that build border walls, including L-3 Communications.
- On February 22, 2016, the Students’ Society of Mcgill University general assembly voted to divest from companies “profiting from violations of Palestinian human rights,” including L-3 Communications. It was later voted against and nullified in an online ratification.