ACR ResQLink Awarded Five Year US Coast Guard Contract For Up To 5,000 Personal Locator Beacons

Press Release From Cobham Commercial Systems:

October 28, 2011

Buy Yours Now!FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - Cobham has been awarded a US Coast Guard contract to supply up to 5,000 406 MHz ACR Electronics Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs), called ResQLink™. ACR, a business unit of Cobham Commercial Systems, will provide up to 1,000 units per year under this five year contract, with a contract extension possible after the fifth year.

The ResQLink™ is small and light enough to hold comfortably in one hand yet powerful enough to guide rescuers to within 100 meters or less of the user's position in a life-threatening emergency. Many of the GPS-enabled ResQLink™ PLBs are to be used by the US Coast Guard's small and medium response boat crews.

"ACR Electronics has over many years equipped the US Coast Guard and other branches of the military with satellite detectible beacons and a variety of rescue lights and strobes," said Michael Wilkerson, ACR's General Manager. "It's a relationship built on quality, performance and trust."

The ResQLink™ offers great capability in the smallest and lightest package available today. It combines ease of use and ACR technology to give pilots, boaters, and outdoors enthusiasts a powerful and accurate safety companion, ready for action at the simple push of a button.

The ResQLink™ broadcasts a unique registered distress signal that not only tells rescuers where the sender is, but who they are.  The onboard 66 channel GPS can quickly fix the sender's position to within 100 meters and then utilizes a powerful 406 MHz signal to relay the distress call to orbiting satellites. As local Search and Rescue is deployed, a separate homing signal and integrated LED strobe light guide rescuers to the sender's exact position.

About Cobham

Cobham specializes in meeting the insatiable demand for data, connectivity and bandwidth in defence, security and commercial environments. Offering a technically diverse and innovative range of technologies and services, the Group protects the lives and livelihoods, responding to customer needs with agility that differentiates it.  The most important thing we build is trust. Employing more than 11,000 people on five continents, the Group has customers and partners in over 100 countries, with annual revenue of £1.9bn/US$3 billion.

About Cobham Commercial Systems

Cobham Commercial Systems is a leading provider of integrated avionics systems, emergency locator systems and radar and missile electronics for military and civil customers.  Cobham's avionics systems can be offered individually or integrated to provide an entire cockpit.  Its synthetic vision Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) revolutionised safety in low-level flight operations and is now approved on more than 700 aircraft and helicopter models. 

Cobham's new Helicopter Stability Augmentation System (HeliSAS) adds to its extensive range of fixed wing auto-pilot solutions and brings added safety within the reach of a host of operators for whom such systems were previously too expensive and heavy. Cobham Commercial Systems is also an acknowledged expert in Emergency Locator Transmitter and Personal Locator Beacon technologies, from personal units to Original Equipment Manufacturer mounted systems on airliners and helicopters.  Its radar and missile RF front end electronics are part of many radars, missiles, and space and commercial radar systems as well as leading edge Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) solutions.

About ACR Electronics

ACR designs and manufactures a complete line of safety and survival products including EPIRBs, PLBs, AIS, SART, Strobe Lights, Life Jacket Lights, Search Lights and safety accessories.  The quality systems of this facility have been registered by UL to the ISO 9001:2008 Series Standards.  Recognized as the world leader in safety and survival technologies, ACR has provided safety equipment to the aviation and marine industries as well as to the military since 1956. The company is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and employs 147 at its manufacturing facility.