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Emergency Services

Alongside terrorism and cyber crime, civil emergencies are in the highest category of threats to the UK's national security, with natural disasters and major accidents posing a serious threat to the welfare of British citizens and the environment. As a result, pressure on the emergency services to be able to respond quickly and effectively to any type of threat or attack is essential.

The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) said “a severe inluenza pandemic and major coastal or tidal flooding which, if they were to occur, would have a significant impact on the UK, threatening the lives of citizens and damaging the economy.” Such civil threats, along with the increased number of home-grown terrorists, provide new challenges for the emergency services.

In addressing these civil and terrorist threats, the UK Government has outlined several important measures, including training for more police officers to enable them to respond to a malicious attack, enhanced training for firearms officers, greater numbers of armed response vehicles, and new measures to improve joint working between the police, fire and ambulance services. For civil emergencies, greater focus is now placed on "preparedness" for flooding at national and local levels, with new mechanisms including the National Flood Emergency Framework and the National Resilience Capabilities programme. These are supplemented by the promise of improved capability and capacity of local responders to handle emergencies.

Underpinning the successful implementation and execution of any emergency responses, as detailed in the SDSR and National Security Strategy, are systems that must be respondent, available and secure. Without such guarantees, the emergency services’ ability to respond in an effective and timely manner will be seriously undermined.

SELEX Systems Integration is vastly experienced and well-equipped to support the Government and emergency services in meeting these challenges. We have proven capability in delivering integrated command control and situational awareness solutions, tailored to ensure collaboration, co-operation and shared best practice amongst emergency responders.

Major projects delivered by us include the rapidly designed and deployed turn-key provision of complete communications, command, control, and security package for worldwide heads of state; a programme lead by us and successfully implemented in Aquila, in central Italy.

Furthermore, the roll-out of a nationwide integrated, and resilient command and control infrastructure for the Italian Civil Protection programme continues to break new ground, as this solution enables comprehensive real-time information, communications and control capabilities to this most critical of protection agencies.

Contact SELEX Systems Integration for further information about how we support the UK's emergency services