L3Harris Opens Amersfoort Engineering Office for FOXTROT Program

L3Harris Technologies (LHX ) has opened a regional engineering support office in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, the company announced on October 9, 2026, saying the location will directly support requirements of the 15-year FOXTROT tactical radio program as well as customer needs throughout Central Europe.

The office will support the engineering resource needs of the Netherlands and allied neighbors and will serve as a central European location for technical customer demonstrations, the company said. L3Harris said it recognized a need for increased presence in mainland Europe to provide more real-time support for a growing customer base on the continent. Under FOXTROT, L3Harris is delivering Falcon IV radios to the Dutch Ministry of Defence under a long-term agreement valued at up to 1 billion euros.

Anthony Rodriguez, Principal, Program Management at L3Harris, said two decisions made the Netherlands a logical location for a regional support facility: the Ministry of Defence chose L3Harris as the sole-source supplier for the FOXTROT program’s Military Transition Building Block, and the Dutch Materiel and IT Command signed a strategic partnership agreement with the company.

“L3Harris will deliver best-in-class solutions to the Dutch armed forces, and the engineering office in the Netherlands will provide the MoD with increased technical support, faster response times and in-country support historically only found in the United States,” Rodriguez said. He added that the Dutch defense industry is growing rapidly and that L3Harris sees multiple opportunities to partner with industry to provide solutions not only to the Dutch MoD but globally.

Rodriguez said the company balanced space requirements and growth potential for the new engineering hub against ease of access for key customers. Amersfoort provided the closest location to Bernhardkazerne, which he said was a priority given the critical needs of the FOXTROT program.

FOXTROT Long-Term Agreement

L3Harris signed the underlying long-term agreement with the Dutch Ministry of Defence on March 27, 2025, covering delivery of advanced Falcon IV radios for the FOXTROT program, the company announced on March 31, 2025. Vice Admiral Jan Willem Hartman, commander of the Dutch Materiel and IT Command, and Chris Aebli, President, Tactical Communications at L3Harris, signed the agreement.

According to that announcement, the Falcon IV radios will allow immediate interoperability with more than 1 million tactical devices already fielded globally. Sam Mehta, President, Communication Systems at L3Harris, said at the time that the systems would improve secure military communications by facilitating interoperability with other European and NATO forces.

The Netherlands Ministry of Defence has described FOXTROT as equipping units across the armed forces with modern communications equipment through the delivery of combat net radios, making the service branches interoperable on the same radio type. The ministry said the radios are better secured and more suitable for communicating over greater distances and in larger networks.

L3Harris delivered the first tactical radios under the program in 2025, with the first FOXTROT equipment arriving in July 2025, the company said in a June 2026 account of the partnership. The company will continue to provide hardware and technical support to the MoD over the lifetime of the program.

Strategic Partnership and Industrial Cooperation

The Ministry of Defence and L3Harris signed their strategic partnership agreement at the Kromhoutkazerne in Utrecht in June 2026, committing to work more collaboratively on future capability needs and requirements in protection of national and allied territory. The ministry dated the signing to June 1, 2026, and said it commits both parties to further developing the FOXTROT solution over the coming 10 to 15 years.

L3Harris is the first company supporting the FOXTROT program to sign such an agreement, which will run the course of the program. The ministry said that involving specialized companies, with L3Harris as the first, in FOXTROT for the long term gives it access to a broad range of innovative solutions from the defense market and to faster technological breakthroughs, increasing resilience against disruption.

The partnership builds on an Industrial Cooperation Agreement that L3Harris signed with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in December 2025.

“The strategic partnership agreement reflects our shared ambition to continuously improve the FOXTROT solution, drive innovation, streamline delivery processes and effectively manage interfaces,” said Vice Adm. Jan Willem Hartman, Commander, Materiel and IT Command.

The ministry said the signing fits within its Digital Transformation Strategy, presented in 2025, and that the partnership allows improvements to be implemented faster and the integration of the radios into the FOXTROT solution to be further improved, keeping the radios up to date.

Sandy Olejniczak, Senior Director, Business Development at L3Harris, said the company has supported the Netherlands MoD for more than 30 years, including the recent FOXTROT program, and will continue to provide the Netherlands with defense technologies including its Falcon tactical radio products.

Alongside the office opening, the company said it has signed multiple letters of intent to collaborate with Dutch defense companies and plans to expand regional partnerships near the new site with government, industry and academia within the Netherlands and across Europe. Rodriguez added that L3Harris is planning to hire Dutch citizens to grow its in-country presence and regional support. In the March 2025 announcement, the company said its in-country leadership, L3Harris Technologies Netherlands B.V., had committed to the long-term growth of the Dutch defense industry by investing in European technology partnerships, developing in-country technical maintenance and support facilities, and recruiting and training Dutch talent.