MOBI: When You Just Have to Chase ‘Em Down
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Small business qualifier and industrial safety and security specialist BriarTek, Inc in Alexandria, VA received a $19 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to install and test Man Overboard Indicator (MOBI) systems on approximately 105 US Navy ships. Work will be performed in Alexandria, VA and is expected to be complete by August 2013. This contract was not competitively awarded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division in Panama City, FL (N61331-08-D-0036).
On a huge, noisy ship like a 500+ foot long destroyer or 1,000 foot aircraft carrier that’s moving at over 20 knots, alerting the entire crew to a man overboard incident is a difficult challenge. Seconds count, however, especially if the ship is traveling in frigid regions like the North Atlantic. MOBI systems help to solve this problem, and BriarTek’s ORCA system goes a step beyond previous versions.
ORCA consists of a water-activated beacon worn by an individual, a receiver mounted on the ship’s bridge, and a directional finder that can pinpoint a beacon’s location even if the waves are too tall to see the person. Unlike previous systems, ORCA provides each person with a unique ID. This lets it track multiple alarms, and displays the number of people in the water during an incident. A digitally encoded message can be used to trigger or reset the bridge alarm if manual activation is needed, or an “all clear” is required due to confirmed false activation.
