McMurdo, a Winner in the 2016 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, has been selected by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), to install nationwide enhancements to its mission control center for satellite-aided Search and Rescue (SAR) technology.
Enhancements will enable the MCA to operate with the new Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellites that are being deployed now.
This new MEOSAR-capable solution will dramatically improve emergency response times and provide more accurate, actionable data to rescue teams.
With this contract award, McMurdo is the worldwide market leader in MEOSAR installations. The contract includes one year of installation and training, followed by an additional three years of service and support.
(Learn More, courtesy of McMurdo Group and YouTube)
Based in Portsmouth, the McMurdo UK team offers the proximity and expertise required to deliver rapid response to customer needs.
System design and development will be completed at Orolia’s world-leading MEOSAR engineering center at the Americas Headquarters facility in the Washington, D.C. area while local deployment and support will be provided by the Portsmouth office.
McMurdo will equip the UK MCA with a new MEOSAR-capable McMurdo mission control center to serve as the central control system that collects distress signals and routes them to the appropriate rescue coordination center.
When fully operational, the upgraded MEOSAR system is expected to dramatically improve the speed and location accuracy for detecting emergency distress beacons.
The company will also install innovative Medium Earth Orbit Local User Terminals (MEOLUT) and upgrade LUTs, or ground stations, that operate on the GEOSAR and LEOSAR satellite constellations for comprehensive program support.
The combination will enable the UK MCA to find individuals by their activated distress beacons using the most reliable system on the market today.
“This nationwide satellite system upgrade will provide unparalleled precision, timing and decision support data to UK search and rescue teams,” said Chris Loizou, Chief Business Development Officer of Orolia.
“We are proud to support the UK MCA with world-leading technology developed through our forty-year history of innovation.”
“The Maritime and Coastguard Agency continually seek opportunities to further advance our search and rescue service delivery and reputation,” said Richard Parkes, Director of Maritime Operations.
“McMurdo’s MEOSAR-enabled mission control center and ground stations will provide the highest caliber technology and performance to support our SAR personnel, enabling us to provide mariners in distress with better response operations to save even more lives.”
(Learn More, courtesy of McMurdo Group and YouTube)
McMurdo, an Orolia brand, is a global leader in emergency readiness and response, with the only end-to-end solutions for search and rescue (SAR) and maritime domain awareness.
Over half of the world’s SAR satellite ground infrastructure has been installed by McMurdo, and McMurdo has manufactured 25 percent of the world’s 500,000 registered beacons.
Hundreds of customers around the world, including NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard and others in the aerospace, defense and government sectors, have trusted McMurdo to prevent emergencies, protect assets and save more than 40,000 lives since 1982.
(Feb 15, 2017 – See in Action as UK Coastguard helicopter rescues unwell fisherman from Isles of Scilly. Courtesy of officialCoastguard and YouTube)
The UK MCA provides a 24-hour maritime search and rescue service around the UK coast, and international search and rescue through HM Coastguard.
