Canada to strengthen SAR system
The Canadian government has announced a series of measures to strengthen its Search and Rescue (SAR) system, including an investment in a satellite system to better detect emergency beacons.
The government plans to invest up to $190.8 million in the Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellite capability. This investment, along with the government's other measures, will aim to improve the SAR capabilities of Canadian armed forces as well as the coast guard.
Canada plans to build up to 24 MEOSAR repeaters and three ground stations to network internationally. The repeaters will be set up on US Air Force (USAF) Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites over the next ten years. According to the government, this will cut down the time taken to identify the location of activated emergency beacons from up to four hours to almost instantaneously.
The Canadian Department of National Defence has been authorised by the government to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with the USAF for procuring and supplying SAR repeaters to be integrated onto GPS satellites.
The Canadian armed forces and coast guard will see their SAR capabilities improved with the acquisition of new life boats, light and medium helicopters for the coast guard and a Request For Proposal to replace the fixed-wing SAR aircraft of the air force.
Jason Kenney, Minister of National Defence, said: 'The government is making sure that Canada's search and rescue capabilities continue to improve and keep up with the times. I am confident the measures we announced today will help keep Canadians safe and will allow SAR professionals and volunteers do their jobs even more effectively.'
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