A team of specialist BAE Systems communications engineers has won a two-year contract extension worth £2 million to support the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) radio communications infrastructure. The contract extends the existing 25-year partnership into 2018.
The company’s Coastguard Support Team is responsible for auditing every radio at MCA sites from the Shetlands to Isles of Scilly to ensure they remain in good working order. The radios are located at around 350 coastal rescue stations, 10 coastguard operations centres and at 140 remote radio sites.
The team carries out an audit of each MCA site every year, carrying out a complete assessment of the equipment and the site itself and recommending to the MCA any repairs or upgrades that may be needed to the radio transmitter or the site as a whole. This could include the roads and tracks leading up to the sites, security issues, building integrity and damage or wear to the transmitters themselves.
Ian Tilbury, BAE Systems Engineering Manager, said: “We are very proud of our long relationship with MCA. The audits can be challenging for our engineers at times, especially when we need to access radio sites in the most remote locations. But our site assessment audits help ensure any problems with transmitters are dealt with before they pose a real threat to the integrity of the communications network.”
BAE Systems’ engineers are also helping the MCA manage a growing demand from wind farm developers in assessing whether proposed new farms will impact on radio coverage from all MCA sites.
