The Royal Australian Navy has contracted CHC Group to provide aviation emergency response services out of the Australian Navy base at Nowra, on the south coast of New South Wales.
CHC Group announced the 15 month contract on Sunday adding that crash response services will be delivered at HMAS Albatross until the proposed commencement of an ADF wide contract in 2018.
CHC said it now provides search and rescue, AME and crash response services to all three of the Australian Defence Force services in Australia, covering the Royal Australian Air Force, the Army and Navy base beginning this month.
The company will use an auto-hover capable AW139 helicopter, which has been used to operate similar SAR services in the United Kingdom. The company said the AW139 at the Nowra base will provide search and rescue coverage for all naval helicopter operations in support of aircrew training and Royal Australian Navy fleet exercises in the local sea training areas.