The first US order is from US Customs for Fastfind Personal Locator Beacons (PLB). The first shipment, worth over $100,000 is now on its way from the Portsmouth manufacturing base via McMurdo’s US distributor Revere Supply. 

The second order is from the US Coastguard for FastFind Plus PLBs. The order is worth $7,500,000 over five years.

“The McMurdo PLB was selected amidst strong competition,” commented McMurdo MD, Robert Hill.

The company has also received full type approval for its new C1 float free capsule, pictured here. The system is fully compliant with international maritime regulations, and now incorporates EPIRB certification from the search and rescue satellite system COSPAS-SARSAT.

Following the announcement that McMurdo had won the contract to supply its PLBs to the US Coastguard, ACR Electronics protested the award of the contract to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, stating in its protest letter that: This protest is filed within ten calendar days of the Coat Guard’s award of the contract to McMurdo. Accordingly it is timely filed. Since this protest is timely filed within ten calendar days of the date of award of the contract, pursuant to the Competition in Contracting Act contract performance should be stayed pending resolution of this protest. We request notification of such suspension

“The GAO is obliged to tell us to cease deliveries while they investigate ACR’s protest,” said Hill.  “It was a closed envelope bid and the Coastguard was to base its decision on price, performance and previous behaviour by the supplier.”

We won, he added.  But ACR chose to protest the decision so we’re waiting to hear what’s going to happen.