Military emergency beacon failure rate almost 50%
Emergency locator beacons used in US Air Force ejection seats and parachute packs have failed in 24% of bench tests and almost 50% of real ejections.
The USAF bought 17,000 AN/URT-44 beacons from Signal Engineering Inc at a cost of US$30 million, with deliveries taking place in 2009 and 2010.
But after only a couple of years since the beacons were installed, military air crash investigators realised that they had failed to work in many crashes. A review of crash reports showed that out of 22 ejections, the beacons failed 10 times.
Furthermore, when bench tested, the AN/URT-44 was found to have a failure rate of 24%.
The USAF is now in the process of replacing the entire fleet of beacons with a new beacon, at a cost of US$69 million. The Air Force put out a call for new designs in January.
Issue with older Samsung phones connecting to Triple Zero
Recent mobile device testing undertaken by the telco industry has identified an issue affecting...
Sweden migrating national comms network from TETRA to broadband
Airbus Public Safety and Security has signed a seven-year contract covering the transition of...
ACMA approves new rules to strengthen Triple Zero
The ACMA says it will be taking early action to understand the status of mobile network...
