Cobham completes Dash-8 upgrades

All 10 planes now have a specially designed Galileo Avionica Surveillance Information System (SIM) installed.

The SIM is able to collate a number of sensors and systems (an L3 Wescam MX15 EO turret, Raytheon SeaVue radar alongside Inmarsat, Iridium and radio feeds) from an event into a coherent whole that can be used later for prosecutions.

The upgrade of the last plane was celebrated at a handover ceremony in Darwin where four of the planes are based.

Another three are based in Cairns, and three in Broome.

"We are celebrating that the tenth system has been fitted to the last Dash-8 aircraft on time and on budget," Cobham Australia CEO Peter Nottage said at the event.

"Truly a significant achievement when you consider the complexity and size of the software development and integration task within the time allowed."

Between them, the 10 Dash-8s and two F406s cover the 15 million square kilometre area under a turnkey solution known as the billion-dollar Project Sentinel, which will run until 2020.

The project sees coverage of 80 per cent of border protection flights with Cobham providing the aircrew, observers and platforms that feed data straight to BPC's Australian Maritime Security Operations Centre in Canberra in almost real time, with real-time capability on demand.

Keep an eye out for more on the project in an upcoming edition of ADM.