Boeing receives second production order for Combat Survivor Evader Locater program
By Courtney E. Howard
ST. LOUIS - Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in St. Louis won its second full-rate production contract for the Combat Survivor Evader Locater (CSEL) communications system. The second order calls for Boeing to supply 2,645 CSEL units and support equipment to the U.S. Air Force.
The CSEL handheld survival radio is designed to provide line-of-sight recovery forces and joint search-and-rescue teams with two-way, secure data communications. In fact, by using CSEL, rescue forces are able to authenticate and communicate information with isolated personnel virtually anywhere the world.
“Using communications satellites and global positioning technology, CSEL radios will save lives by providing real-time encrypted information about the precise location of isolated personnel such as downed pilots,” says Michael Bates, Boeing’s CSEL program manager.
Bates notes that the new technology could change the way combat search-and-rescue missions are conducted, given that CSEL assists with the search portion.
Downed military pilots can use the Combat Survivor Evader Locater radio to contact rescue forces from almost anywhere in the world.
A multifunctional radio, the CSEL not only supplies geopositioning information, but also ensures security via communication and message encryption techniques designed to prevent signals from being intercepted or decoded.
Boeing developed the CSEL joint services program under contract with the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.
Boeing’s first full-rate production contract for the CSEL came last March from the U.S. Air Force. That $43.6 million order called for Boeing to deliver 5,053 CSEL handheld radios to the joint services by October 2006.
If the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy elect to acquire these devices, the contract could equate to the production of as many as 46,000 CSEL radios and a total contract value of roughly $250 million, according to Boeing executives.
The potential exists for the widespread use of CSEL in the armed forces. Boeing representatives consider this second FRP, received less than four months after the first contract, to be a nod of approval from the Air Force warfighters equipped with them.
