Bristow Helicopters will continue to deploy a range of surveillance aircraft over the English Channel to monitor small boat crossings under a one-year contract extension worth £8.4 million ($10.6 million).
Initially implemented in 2022, the Channel Aviation Emergency Search and Rescue (CAESAR) contract – part of the wider UKSARH service run by Bristow – was a response to the rising number of small boat crossings.
Bristow has provided crewed and uncrewed fixed-wing aircraft to monitor the Channel to build up a “multi-layered operational picture”, allowing HM Coastguard to prioritise rescue efforts, says a contract notification issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
Awarding that work to Bristow freed up other fixed-wing assets contracted to the MCA which had been performing the mission on an interim basis, it says.
Bristow will transition to a new search and rescue contract – UKSAR2G – between October 2024 and December 2026, which sees it “subsume” both the helicopter and fixed-wing elements; the latter will be provided by 2Excel Aviation.
Although this was meant to also include the Channel monitoring mission, data used to support the requirements for UKSAR2G ran only to 2019. As such, it “is not reflective of the current demand in the Channel”, says the contract notice.
“UKSAR2G service provision cannot meet the national requirement and address the demand in the Channel.”
Subsequent analysis by the MCA of data running until the end of 2023 only reinforces that view, the agency says.
With the CAESAR contract due to expire in February 2025 and Bristow requiring four-months’ notice of contract extension, the MCA says the “only achievable and responsible course of action” is to extend the current deal.
This “will provide time for the MCA to explore the options available with the UKSAR2G service to address any capability gap”, it adds.
Provision for an additional one-year extension is also included in the contract.
Bristow says it will deploy a pair of crewed Diamond Aircraft DA62s and four Schiebel Camcopter S-100 uncrewed rotary-wing air vehicles from Lydd airport in southeast England for the CAESAR mission.
In 2022, the MCA awarded Bristow a 10-year contract worth £1.6 billion to run UKSAR2G, which will see it operate 18 helicopters, six Beechcraft King Airs – subcontracted to 2Excel – and a single S-100.
