Sensis Corporation Wide Area Multilateration Surveillance to Enhance Safe Helicopter Operations over North Sea

EAST SYRACUSE, NY – March 5, 2007 – NATS, formerly the UK’s National Air Traffic Services, has awarded Sensis Corporation a contract for Multistatic Dependent Surveillance (MDS) for Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) Surveillance in the North Sea. NATS provides air traffic services for helicopters supporting the oil and gas operations in the North Sea. Sensis MDS will enable surveillance and tracking of helicopter traffic to and from oil platforms from close to the helicopter deck up to 10,000 feet for 25,000 square miles of airspace off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland.

“Aberdeen air traffic control handles more than 25,000 helicopter flights per year,” said Graeme Henderson, manager of Surveillance and Display Systems for NATS. “A large part of the airspace is beyond radar coverage, and a state of the art solution is required to solve this problem. The use of Sensis MDS will enhance the safety and efficiency of helicopter operations in this harsh environment.”

Sensis MDS will locate and identify helicopters using sensors placed on oil platforms in deep water in the North Sea. With precision equal to or better than traditional secondary surveillance radars, consistent surveillance performance regardless of weather conditions and the capability for higher update rates, Sensis MDS provides significant benefits.

“Multilateration has demonstrated that it is a less expensive yet more effective solution than traditional radar,” said Marc Viggiano, president of Sensis Air Traffic Systems. “The system features a low-maintenance design along with the ability to present a clear surveillance picture in any environment. Further, it supports new and emerging technologies such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast.”

Sensis is a leader in WAM surveillance, fielding the first commissioned multilateration system for WAM at Innsbruck, Austria. Sensis MDS is also being deployed for WAM in Tasmania, Australia, Patuxent River Naval Air Station (Maryland) and Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (California). Sensis’ wide-area expertise has been demonstrated in a number of WAM evaluation programs, including the Helicopter In-Flight Tracking System program, which evaluated the effectiveness of WAM for tracking helicopter traffic to and from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.