News

SAR-H: And the winner is...

February 12, 2010

Soteria has been announced as the preferred bidder of the UK's Search and Rescue Helicopter (SAR-H) contract.

The consortium, made up of CHC, Thales and the Royal Bank of Scotland, was announced as the bidder of choice for the £6 billion Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in Parliament today, following the launch of the programme in 2006.

Soteria will be awarded the contract later in 2010.

The joint Department for Transport (DfT) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract will end the involvement of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy in Search and Rescue operations and new fleet of SAR-equipped Sikorsky S-92s purchased by the bidder will operate under the banner of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), although some military aircrew, roughly 66, will be retained to operate a handful of the new helicopters.

Two-thirds of the money to pay for the PFI will come from the Ministry of Defence, the other third from the Department for Transport.

Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies, said: 'I am delighted to announce that the Soteria Consortium has been chosen as the Preferred Bidder for the Search and Rescue Helicopter (SAR-H) project. 

'The new service, which will begin with a phased introduction which is anticipated to begin in 2012, will bring together the current Search and Rescue helicopter provision into one highly effective and harmonised service under a single contract providing the British taxpayer with an excellent service for many years to come.

'The future service will benefit from modern, fast, reliable helicopters and will continue to operate from 12 bases in order to ensure that it provides a fully effective SAR service.'

He said the choice of a PfI structure for the provision of SAR services was not 'driven by a cost savings agenda' and the drive was simply on providing a better, more modern service.

Soteria bid director, David Rae said: 'Soteria will work in partnership with the MoD and DfT, and other SAR and civil resilience stakeholders, to ensure that the UK’s history of providing a world leading SAR service is assured and enhanced through the introduction of modern technology in the form of the Sikorsky S92.'

Speaking to Rotorhub.com, he said he was satisfied with the bidding process pointing out this was the first major PFI that CHC has gone into.

'Our next step will be close the finance and finalise the contract. Now that we have preferred bidder status we can raise the funds that we have been negotiating for with financial institutions over the last 18 months and we don't foresee any issues.'

Rae said in the coming months, the bidding teams would meet with the SAR-H Integrated Project Team to discuss their decision and findings, but said: 'If you look at the strengths of our team, CHC is a major, global helicopter operator with search and rescue as one of its core activities, Thales is a major defence contractor with experience in training and RBS with their financial nous, I have a balanced team working very well together.'

Paul Clark, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport, said: 'The new harmonised service is an excellent opportunity to build upon the high regard that the UK SAR service is so rightly held. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency manage a SAR service from their four bases that has already been successfully delivered by a contractor for over 20 years and the new service will build on this proven track record.'

A spokeswoman for the AirKnight team said: 'The AirKnight team is disappointed that we have not been selected to provide the Search and Rescue Helicopter programme, however both Lockheed Martin UK and VT Group, look forward to continuing to deliver critical programmes to the Ministry of Defence and Department for Transport.'

Soteria would not comment on the number of helicopters which will be used, but Quentin Davies said the contractor had indicated there would likely be at least two helicopters based at each of the 12 bases around the UK.

Details released by the government say that the service will continue to be managed by the MOD and MCA and tasking will continue to be allocated by the Aeronautical Rescue and Co-Ordination Centre located at RAF Kinloss.

The new service will be phased in progressively taking over site by site, anticipated to start in 2012. The four MCA bases will transition to the new service first and will be followed by the eight MOD bases. The detailed timetable will be finalised as part of concluding the contract.

The new fleet will introduce a single black and orange livery which will according to the government: maximise visibility, signal that this is an emergency service, represent the MOD and MCA by including the RAF, RN and MCA insignia on all helicopters and maximise flexibility by being a single colour scheme.

Among the tough conditions set by the team are a 98% level of availability for the aircraft and the retainment of all 12 current SAR bases.  The bid teams also have to be able to carry out 12 missions concurrently.

Aircraft have to launch within 15 minutes during the day, within 45 minutes at night and have to be able to reach all 'Very High Risk Areas' and 75% of 'Medium Risk Areas' within 60 minutes, the service also has to have the ability to surge aircraft when required.

By Tony Osborne and Tony Skinner - Rotorhub.com Editorial Team