Personnel locator system helps rescue downed pilots.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Special operations pilots are receiving an upgraded personnel locator system that relies on voice and text messaging to rescue downed pilots and aircrews.

The system is Cubic Defense's V12, which is being installed on AS 330 Puma helicopters. The UAE ordered 28 systems to go aboard these helicopters. The Emirates also have eight CH-47 Chinooks poised to receive the personnel locator system, said Craig Campbell, Cubic's director for avionics advanced developments.

Downed pilots use survival radios to communicate with the locator system to enable combat search-and-rescue crews to quickly find and extract them.

"We provide a secure way of interrogating not only for survivors but for all kinds of assets," he said. "It provides a waypoint to enable situational awareness of the mission area and it can be used as a system to locate ground troops, surface ships, vehicles and any types of aircraft."

Cubic built different transponders that can be installed in aircraft and vehicles or can be carried by troops, he explained.

In the United States, for example, the locator system is a key element of command and control where intelligence satellites can fuse with it with...