Kenya selects McMurdo to upgrade national aviation search and rescue program

SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS, France. Officials at the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) in Kenya needed technology with which to upgrade the country’s aviation-based search and rescue (SAR) system. They found their solution at Orolia, which will upgrade Kenya’s aeronautical SAR program with its latest McMurdo branded Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) technology.

McMurdo’s system includes PRISMA C2, a software platform that converges critical emergency readiness and response solutions, such as coastal surveillance and aviation incident management. McMurdo’s solution will provide SAR operators with real-time situational awareness tools and integrate external systems, such as air traffic control, to facilitate enhanced planning and management of SAR missions.

"With McMurdo's software-generated search planning, the KCAA will greatly advance its SAR capabilities nationwide -- saving more lives with better data," explains KCAA Director General Capt. Gilbert M. Kibe.

McMurdo staff will use Cospas-Sarsat technology and seamlessly connect the Kenyan RCC to the Italian Mission Control Center (MCC), which will allow the RCC to receive beacon distress alert data.

"PRISMA C2 will deliver real-time decision support data that will enable Kenyan rescue teams to effectively pre-plan and manage SAR missions to save more lives," says Orolia Chief Business Development Officer Chris Loizou.

To fulfill this critical requirement, McMurdo draws upon its history of SAR and Orolia's experience in resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions. McMurdo's aviation SAR solutions are developed based on redundancy, ensuring maximum availability, and continuous operations. This contract builds on SAR and PNT solutions already in place in Botswana, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa.

McMurdo provides emergency readiness and response with end-to-end solutions for SAR and maritime domain awareness. Hundreds of customers around the world – including NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and others in the aerospace, defense, and government sectors – have trusted McMurdo to prevent emergencies, protect assets, and save lives.

Orolia makes Resilient PNT solutions that improve the reliability, performance, and safety of critical, remote, or high-risk operations with locations in more than 100 countries worldwide. Orolia provides virtually fail-safe solutions for its customers' most mission-critical needs, officials say.

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