THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE
The Nigerian Navy is using an Israeli-designed, United Arab Emirates-built Falcon Eye mass surveillance system to track activity in the Gulf of Guinea.
The waters off the coast of Nigeria are notorious for piracy, especially kidnappings and oil theft, and the technology is intended to help the country’s Armed Forces combat maritime crimes. Rear Adm. Raphael Osondu said piracy is a persistent threat to Nigeria’s economy and that countering it is a military priority.
Falcon Eye’s six electro-optical stations allow for the monitoring of aircraft, vessels and offshore oil infrastructure. The system has a range of up to 35 nautical miles from the coast, well beyond the 12-nautical-mile limit of Nigeria’s territorial seas.
Osondu added that the new system covers “the blind arcs which we experience in some parts of our territorial waters with the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability (RMAC) system.” RMAC is a coastal surveillance system that uses the Automatic Identification System and ground-based radar to track maritime traffic. It was deployed in the Gulf of Guinea in 2011.
“The Falcon Eye will aid the Nigerian Navy with a better and more accurate system to monitor and conduct activities in [the] Nigerian Maritime Domain and her EEZ (exclusive economic zone),” he said. The Nigerian Navy’s training center for the system has already trained about 70 people to operate Falcon Eye.
In addition to the Nigerian military’s shore-based surveillance systems, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has said that it is considering the acquisition of drone aircraft for maritime domain awareness.
Comments are closed.