Furuno Awarded $5.5m Coast Guard Contract

Furuno USA, Inc. has been awarded a multi-year U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) contract valued at just over $5.5m. The contract for the Standard Navigation Acquisition Package (SNAP) ensures delivery of robust, reliable Furuno electronics for the US Coast Guard. The equipment is slated for the replacement of the aging radar systems on Coast Guard patrol and rescue boats. The SNAP contract comes on the heels of another USCG contract award secured by Furuno for over 100 of its full-featured, adaptive, NavPilot Autopilot systems.

Each patrol and rescue boat will have a high-tech integrated navigation system based on Furuno's NavNet vx2 to make these boats state-of-the-art. Built around Furuno's revolutionary NavNet vx2 radar/chart plotter system, the SNAP package seamlessly integrates a 1934C radar/chart plotter, GP37 DGPS/WAAS, RD30 digital depth display with a 235 kHz Smart Sensor and PG1000 Heading Sensor. Some vessels will also receive an LC90MK2 Loran-C. All of the information can be viewed on the daylight-viewable 10.4" LCD display of the 1934C, while the GP37 and RD30 can display their respective information. Additional NavNet vx2 displays may be connected using the Ethernet network feature of the NavNet vx2 product line. Many USCG boats will receive a basic SNAP package and other displays, which can be fully customized to an individual operator's needs.

The scalable nature of the equipment ensures the opportunity for growth of the SNAP concept, and is capable of responding to virtually all Coast Guard requirements for boats of any size or length. Furuno received a contract with the USCG in 2002 for SINS (Scalable Integrated Navigation System). The final order for this contract has been made and will be delivered late this year. The SINS contract was for similar type of equipment and the contract totaled nearly $10m.