Nigeria’s deployment of the state-of-the-art surveillance system, Falcon Eye for maritime security will save the country several billions of US dollars, while effectively degrading piracy and other crimes around the Gulf of Guinea and beyond, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, who represented the President today at the commissioning of the facility.
The Falcon Eye System is a state-of-the-art surveillance facility that incorporates various sensors located along the nation’s enormous coastline, such as Radars, long range Electro Optic Systems with thermal or night vision capability, Automatic Identification System receivers, Weather Stations and marine Very High Frequency Radios for communication. The integration of these sensors into the Falcon Eye system generates a real-time situational awareness of the activities of vessels in Nigerian maritime domain and some selected parts in the Gulf of Guinea.
The surveillance facility incorporates various sensors located along the nation’s enormous coastline.
According to him, “it is estimated that Nigeria loses several billions of dollars annually to various forms of criminality particularly piracy and sea robbery.”
“This underscores the need to enhance our maritime security architecture. Consequently, a critical contribution of the Falcon Eye System will be the provision of actionable intelligence for curbing maritime threats to our economy.”
“Given our economic aspirations and our commitment to international trade, ensuring the security of shipping lanes within and proximate to our waters is in our national interest.”
Emphasizing the critical nature of the surveillance system, the VP said “the Falcon Eye System will serve as a force multiplier for our naval platforms tasked to effectively secure our maritime environment from external aggression. It will also enable the Nigerian Navy to effectively combat any maritime crime that could disrupt the conduct of maritime trade.”
The highpoint of the occasion was the commissioning of the project’s Command and Control Centre and a real-time interaction between the Vice President and field commanders on the operations of the Falcon Eye Project.
