As industry awaits the anticipated release of an RfP for Singapore’s future maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) requirement, Selex ES is ready to respond to it with its airborne surveillance system, a company official has revealed.
Speaking to Shephard prior to the Singapore Airshow, Fabrizio Boggiani, director of marketing and sales for the airborne and space systems division, said that should the Singapore government release its RfP – as it is soon expected to do – the company is ready to respond with its Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance (ATOS) system.
‘It is no secret that Singapore is going to have a tender soon,’ Boggiani explained. ‘Singapore has a planned tender for MPA - maritime patrol aircraft - which is applicable to the coastal area because Singapore is an island and everything is coastal.
‘We have the ATOS, and this is our system for surveillance and is something that can be onboard any aircraft for maritime patrol missions. It is where we started onboard the ATR 42 for the Guardia di Finanza, and now we are very much progressing with other opportunities for the ATOS.’
He said that Selex will respond to the tender, but he could not elaborate more until the RfP has been released.
‘Our plan is to respond to this tender,’ he continued. ‘We have been told that it will be [released] in 2014, but of course this is a call for the Singapore government, not the supplier.’
The company has already seen success with its ATOS. In Italy it is used by the Guardia di Finanza on the ATR 42, as well as in Australia on-board 10 Dash-8 aircraft and two helicopters operated by Cobham for the coast guard’s Coastwatch programme.
‘This is an open, flexible and modular mission management system, which can have one or multiple work stations on-board, and can allow the mission to be carried out under many different missions,’ Boggiani explained.
‘They put this system on-board the ATR 42 operated by the Italian Guardia di Finanza. From there we have progressed and are now on the third generation of the ATOS mission management system, which has been integrated on-board aircraft in Australia for the Coastwatch programme under the Coast Guard’s responsibility.’
Target markets in the Far East for Selex include Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, Boggiani continued, all of which it is actively marketing to.
‘We are looking at countries that are close to China… and the fact that there are many other competitors there is a sign that these are countries where there are needs to have more modern and better assets for either protecting coasts or carrying out surveillance.
‘The Far East is one of the target markets for our company, especially for the coastal surveillance mission,’ Boggiani continued.
‘The area is full of situations where the countries would like to have the possibility to monitor the coast areas, and around there are islands that are in some way distributed between different countries, and they are interested in having assets that are able to monitor piracy and also to inspect the EEZ [exclusive economic zone].’
(Shephard)
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