General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Coast Guard to provide ongoing sustainment services for the national Rescue 21 search and rescue system.
General Dynamics, the prime contractor for the system’s design, development and deployment, will continue to provide field service personnel, technical support and maintenance of the system.
Rescue 21 currently comprises 232 fixed towers and related facilities that enable the Coast Guard to monitor the nation’s coastline and inland waterways; it also serves as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s first nationwide command, control and communications network. The four-year contract has a total potential value of $176 million if all options are exercised.
“The Rescue 21 system’s 232 fixed towers have enabled life-saving assistance for countless boaters from Seattle to Key West to Massachusetts and many points in between,” said Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems. “With this award we will continue our collaboration and support of the Coast Guard’s Rescue 21 system and its expanding role within the Department of Homeland Security.”
The Rescue 21 system will be a network of 32 Coast Guard sector command centers, 167 stations and more than 260 fixed towers located along U.S. waterways and the shores of the Great Lakes, Hawaii, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Using advanced direction-finding technologies and digital communications, the Coast Guard rapidly and efficiently responds to emergency calls from mariners while coordinating with federal, state and local law enforcement and first responders. The system also supports the Coast Guard’s homeland security missions that include drug interdiction, defense readiness, marine environmental protection and law enforcement.
