Duty staff have immediate access to all RAF assets which may be required to deal with an incident, whether it is small-scale or a major disaster. Close co-operation is maintained with colleagues at similar organisations run by neighbouring countries, and if necessary Kinloss can request assistance from another country when an incident is in the general area of a national boundary. Diplomatic clearances can be arranged very quickly if required to allow UK or foreign assets to operate on SAR duties wherever they are needed. The computer based system, produced by IBM Defence and Aerospace , gives controllers immediate access to a wide-ranging database of emergency services and assets, and enables constant detailed logging of incidents in real time. The system provides direct communications at the touch of a screen to all the military SAR units and to the principal Coastguard Maritime RCCs, and very rapid access to other emergency services via an auto-dial facility.
Staff can also keep in touch with aircraft and MRTs via an HF radio system.
Also based at ARCC Kinloss is the UK receiving centre for the international SAR satellite alerting system. Aircraft and ships carrying the appropriate electronic beacons can automatically broadcast distress information which is picked up by one or more of six satellites and relayed to Kinloss. Using this data the controllers can call out the nearest SAR units to assist. To meet these Search and Rescue tasks helicopters are located at 12 bases around the UK coastline. Six are RAF Helicopter Flights, two are Royal Navy and four are Coastguard units.