Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to welcome you all to this kick-off for the NAWSARH project. The Project is called the NAWSARH project (Norwegian All Weather Search and Rescue Helicopter project), which indicates that this is a huge and most challenging job on behalf of our society. I hope we can now find the road forward towards a replacement of today’s rescue helicopter, the Sea King. The goal must be that those who in 30 – 40 years’ time have to find new helicopters (or whatever we use then) will say the same about this new rescue helicopter, as can be said about the Sea King today; that it has been a success!

This project is a joint effort involving not just the Ministry of Justice. I am very happy that both the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Health and Care will join us in the project. A good solution will be secured through cooperation. 

Norway is a long country with fjords and mountains and vast areas of sea. The area where Norway is responsible for rescue is six times the area of Norwegian land. Our coastline is one of the world’s longest, totalling 25 000 km.

The Norwegian climate changes throughout the year and some areas have huge variations between the four seasons.

People go hiking in the wild and can sometimes behave irresponsibly. Norwegian and foreign business activity is increasing throughout our area of responsibility. With this increased activity follows an increased need for search and rescue services.
Even though most of the SAR missions take place close to the coast or over land, the SAR services are dimensioned for big sea accidents far from the coast. Over the last four decades, close to twenty significant sea accidents have been registered, with a large number of people affected. Therefore we must build up enough capacity and capability to establish a reliable search and rescue service if such accidents occur in the future. And if we manage to handle the major tasks, we will also be able to handle the smaller ones.

Many people’s lives are linked to our vast and sometimes wild sea areas. Organisations representing these people have naturally shown a lot of interest in the replacement of the rescue helicopters and have strong opinions about it.
What do we see if we look at the future?

Centre for International Climate and Environment Research (CICERO) forecasts rapid changes to do with global warming. One of many conclusions is that within the next 40 years, there is likely to be no ice on the North Pole for six months of the year. The effect this will have on oil exploration, transport, fisheries and tourism is yet to see. It is however expected that such activities will move northwards.
The Government is working for the best possible search and rescue service. We know that the cost of operating the Sea King is increasing. At the same time we know that there are very good and future-oriented solutions available in the market. As we are also implementing an on-site guard and establishing a new base from 2009, the risk for interruption of the SAR service increases. Therefore the timing of the new acquisition is important, and the Government wants new search and rescue helicopters contracted by the autumn of 2009.

The Government’s top priority is to secure the very best helicopters that can rescue as many people as possible in a difficult situation, at an acceptable and fair price.
Choosing new search and rescue helicopters to replace today’s Sea King is a task that will have consequences for the next 30 – 40 years. If the process turns out the way the Government wishes, the new search and rescue helicopters will be ready to be phased in during the period 2011 – 2014. New search and rescue helicopters will cost approximately 2 – 3 billion NOK. The costs of operation and maintenance throughout the lifetime of the helicopters will come on top of that. In other words, the NAWSARH project will be dealing with great values for our society on behalf of the Government and the Storting.

In line with the public acquisition requirements and based on an assessment of the total situation, the Government has decided to start a new procurement process through an open bidding round prior to the buying of new helicopters.

We are looking for ten to twelve new AWSAR  helicopters. The new helicopters will be operated by the RNoAF through a revision of the operation agreement with the Ministry of Defence.

AWSARH helicopters are a contingency resource. Our vision is that our Search and Rescue Helicopter Service shall be predictable, reliable, visible and robust with a capacity to reach all potential emergency situations in the Norwegian rescue area and safely rescue a large number of people in distress.

The helicopter requirements are based on the expert evaluation from 2003. It is a key requirement that we must be able to rescue 25 people in distress within a distance of 240 Nm from the base. In my view, however, the cabin size requirements have been underestimated.

It must be stressed that it is important to facilitate competition between a sufficient number of suppliers. Thus the requirements must be adjusted to the possibilities in the market. I expect the project to take a closer look at these issues.
The main requirements must be satisfied and must lead us to a helicopter with more than one engine, it must have a wide range, adaptable capacity and all weather capabilities. It must be equipped with state of the art search and rescue equipment as well as medical ambulance equipment. The helicopter must be built according to the latest standards of safety to maintain the crew’s safety and the life cycle of the materials. It is important that the procurement ensures a high standard of maintenance support and training.

Finally, it is most important that the procurement process for search and rescue helicopters as far as possible focuses on and adapts the procurement to the environmental goals stated by both the Government and the Storting. Furthermore, clear ethical standards must also be met. This applies to all phases of the procurement process, and to you in the project as well as to the suppliers. We establish a procurement project which the Ministry of Justice and Police is responsible for. The project mandate has been developed to secure the procurement and the delivery of the best possible search and rescue helicopter at the right time, based on an approved requirement specification and to secure a seamless phasing-in towards operation, including related logistics and training arrangements. A contract is to be established at the lowest risk possible for society over the next 30 – 40 years. The process must be well within the legal framework and the guidelines and shall be conducted in a correct, impartial and objective manner.

The project shall facilitate cooperation with Iceland, if the cooperation with Iceland develops the way the Government wants.

I hereby hand over responsibility to the Rescue and Emergency Planning Department for establishing the project and establishing the Guiding Document for the implementation process.

The Storting has regularly been pointing out that one must also look for alternative areas of use for rescue helicopters.  At the same time there has been an emphasis on not weakening the rescue preparedness. This way the Storting’s wish is fulfilled, as we today do ambulance missions as well, and no doubt this was and is still an issue with regard to the multiple use concept.

As regards preparedness, this consists of both capacity and capability. This is a part of the challenge faced by the project, and it is why the Government decided we should communicate with the market concerning what capacities and capabilities are available. The Storting has determined the priorities for our work.

I wish you every success!