‘More staff to be trained for NSS system’

Peter Alagos/Business Reporter

More than 250 military and border security personnel have received training for the newly-launched highly-sophisticated border security system of the National Security Shield (NSS).

More people are expected to be trained, a senior official said.

NSS director Mohamed al-Mannai said since last year, the agency has provided operational and technical training on border security to coast guards, border guards, the navy and other military and security personnel from general headquarters.

Al-Mannai spoke to Gulf Times after Airbus Defence & Space recently launched the NSS border security system, which provides “the most advanced” surveillance programme for maritime and terrestrial areas of the country.

“It is advanced in terms of the different levels of systems that have been deployed. It is not unique but it is a little bit more diverse and complex from other systems used in other countries,” al-Mannai explained.

He said the system is jointly operated from the national level up to the operations centres, which are composed of the air force, border guard and naval operations, and ultimately to the higher levels of general headquarters and national command centres.

“So information is linked with the system and deployed from the lowest to the highest levels. The idea is to inform concerned people so they could utilise the technology to make the right commands within their areas of operation,” al-Mannai said.

He said the NSS signed the contract with Airbus Defence & Space in June 2007 but the actual implementation of the project was initiated in January 2008. “Airbus had a six-month period to mobilise and give their people the time to establish their office as a company here, execute the mission, and to get all subcontractors aligned with the project.”

He added: “Airbus Defence & Space is the main integrator and they make sure that everything is aligned with technology requirements like design and the integrating of the sensors and systems.”

According to al-Mannai, the border security and surveillance project involved the participation of more than 25 different companies and suppliers that were commissioned for consultancy, construction and offshore contracts.

He also clarified that the “NSS doesn’t consist of a system only; that’s the misconception.”

He explained that the NSS consists of a large number of contracts mostly in infrastructure and construction. Phase 1 involved the building of infrastructure like towers, communication networks, microwaves and fiber optic lines, among others.

Phase 2, on the other hand, includes the construction of operations centres within Doha that are linked in order to share data and information and the offshore platforms that are being built along oil and gas production facilities managed by Qatar Petroleum.

“This allows the NSS to have full coverage of the entire economic zone of Qatar and all of these should be completed by the end of 2016,” al-Mannai said, adding that the final phase would be the completion of the offshore facilities.