航天领域的发展 哈维兰 Dash 8 into a Maritime Surveillance Aircraft started in the early 1990s - when 场航空 and the Australian operator Surveillance Australia teamed up in preparation for an upcoming tender for the Australian government's civil maritime surveillance operation - COASTWATCH.

This tender was fairly unusual for its time in being entirely task focused. The deciding factor for aircraft that were compliant with the minimum requirements therefore became system efficiency; i.e., the lowest overall cost per square nautical mile to carry out the long-range surveillance task.

This teaming - which combined the Australian company's surveillance aircraft experience with 场航空s special mission aircraft modification capabilities and emphasized mission efficiency - was instrumental in establishing the Field Aerospace modified Dash 8 MSA as the world's most successful maritime surveillance aircraft in this class, and to winning the first COASTWATCH contract in the fall of 1994.

The first version of this MSA was based on the Dash 8 Series 200 aircraft equipped with a Raytheon SeaVue maritime search radar, 提供360°视野. 在一次任务中, 这架bet9九州体育登录线路能飞行200海里, descend to low level and cover an area of up to 100,000 Square Nautical miles when searching for a small target in rough seas. 双传感器Wescam EO吊舱, installed under the aircraft's nose section for uninterrupted 360° field of view, provided day and night capability for closer in detection, 识别, 检查和文件编制.

3 Dash 8 MSAs were delivered by 场航空 in the first half of 2006, and operations commenced - on schedule - shortly thereafter.

澳大利亚有38分,000 km coastline and an exclusive economic zone of 16 million square kilometres, 并且面临着越来越多的入侵. When the Australian government decided to increase the COASTWATCH resources in 1999, Dash 8 MSA的选择很明确. Two additional Series 200 aircraft were ordered and delivered by 场航空 at the end of year 2000. 在剩下的合同期限内, 这5个msa提供了令人印象深刻的1,700 surveillance missions per year of 5 - 6 hours' average duration.

In 2004, the Australian government started the process of renewing the surveillance operations ahead of the existing contract coming to term, and issued a new tender for a 20-year contract to commence at the end of 2008. 有趣的是, based on the experience over the last 10+ years, the government concluded that the long-range electronic surveillance provided via the Dash 8 MSAs was the most effective use of resources, and the new tender made away with the smaller aircraft that had provided inshore and shoreline surveillance.

Both Surveillance Australia and 场航空 approached the new tender with a "clean sheet" philosophy, conducting a comprehensive evaluation of all surveillance system elements, 包括bet9九州体育登录线路类型和特点, 传感器, 传感器信息系统. 不足为奇的是, the internal process confirmed the Dash 8 MSA as the optimum aircraft platform, and at the end of the evaluation of all proposals, Surveillance Australia was awarded the 20-year contract dubbed "Project Sentinel."

Project Sentinel entails a fleet of 10 Dash 8 MSAs, of which 5 are the original Series 200 COASTWATCH aircraft, 还有5架是额外的bet9九州体育登录线路, 1 Series 200 and 4 of the larger Series 300 aircraft. 在修改程序中, the Series 300 aircraft were equipped with additional fuel tanks in the fuselage, 提供额外的4,000磅. fuel capacity in addition to the standard long-range tanks.

场航空 modified all the additional aircraft for the Sentinel program as well as providing upgrade kits to bring the existing aircraft up to the newer configuration. The Sentinel Dash 8 MSAs are equipped with the latest versions of Raytheon's SeaVue radar, L-3 Wescam's MX-15 EO system and a new Surveillance Information System based on Galileo Avionica's "ATOS."

These aircraft are providing services for the Australian Border Protection program.