A$ 1.0 Bn Coastwatch Contract Finalized, New Aircraft Ordered

Coastwatch Dash-8 Q200(click to view full) In DID’s January 2006 “Cobham Catches $A 1B Australian Coastwatch Contract,” we described Australia’s innovative approach to maritime border patrol, explained the program’s assets and structure, and noted that Cobham had been named the preferred bidder (vs. Raytheon Australia) for the next phase of the twelve-year, A$ 1 billion CMS04 program. That status was finalized in a contract as of March 3, 2006. This announcement has in turn triggered a pair of contracts from Cobham subsidiaries for additional aircraft and accompanying modifications. As noted in DID’s earlier Coastwatch post, the current Surveillance Australia fixed-wing aircraft roster currently includes: * 5 Bomardier Dash-8 Q200 Maritime Patrol Aircraft. * 3 Cessna Reims F406 turboprop aircraft fitted with surveillance radar and night vision systems for inshore surveillance. * 6 Pilatus Britten-Norman BN2B Islander aircraft, fitted for the Visual Surveillance role. * 1 Shrike AC500 Aero Commander, fitted for the Visual Surveillance Role Keeping watch(click to view full) To fulfil the CMS04 contract’s new requirement for “all electronic surveillance” from January 2008, Cobham notes that this fleet of will be augmented to 10 Bomardier Dash-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA): 6 Q200s, and 4 larger and longer-range Q300s. All […]