NSW Rural Fire Service has fitted Starlink to the first 53 of a planned 5000 vehicles under a $69 million project, with 20 vehicles participating in tests.
The NSW government committed to equipping the RFS’ operational fleet with Starlink-powered vehicle-as-a-node (VaaN) technology over three years in August last year, saying at the time that installations would start sometime in 2024.
An RFS spokesperson told iTnews that a delay in “contract finalisation” had “impacted the start of the design phase” for the project.
“There have been some scheduling adjustments typical of large-scale programs, [but] the project remains on track and has met key milestones to date,” the spokesperson said.
Jihad Dib, Customer Services and Digital Government minister, was questioned about the program’s progress during NSW Budget Estimates earlier this month.
During the hearing, he said that around 50 vehicles had been upgraded and that 20 were in the “trial and testing phase”.
“We are rolling them out progressively,” he added.
The RFS added that new RFS vehicles “will be equipped with VaaN from their initial deployment” by September this year.
The VaaN program has been in motion for some time already, having been allocated $11.3 million in the 2023-24 state budget [pdf] and a procurement process being kicked off in 2023.
At the time, it was noted that VaaN would “include low earth orbit satellite services and hardware as well as mesh/4G routers to provide seamless and robust connectivity.”
In May 2024, the RFS appointed Hypha Solutions to supply the hardware until May 2027 as part of a $41.4 million contract.