Air Force improves search-and-rescue radio

Experts from the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, and the Boeing Co. in Anaheim, Calif., have tested new military handheld search-and-rescue communications survival system called the Combat Survivor Evader Locator. The so-called CSEL is the first military search and rescue radio that provides multi-satellite, over-the-horizon communications and a new military global positioning system module in a small, light system. Production of CSEL will begin in 2002. During testing at Hurlburt Field, Fla., CSEL computer systems handled sending repeated messages to and from simulated operators to the search and rescue organizations. Evaluators used two scenarios and three different environments, including a simulated downed aircrew member trying to coordinate his way to safety, and a simulated wounded aircrew member trying to bring rescuers to his position. — J.K.