The Federal Executive Council at its December 1, 2010 meeting approved the sum of N 519,962,557 million for the supply and installation of aerial surveillance equipment on board a Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) border patrol aircraft. The aircraft was identified as a Dornier 228, with tail number 5N-AUZ.
The Federal Executive Council at its December 1, 2010 meeting approved the sum of N 519,962,557 million for the supply and installation of aerial surveillance equipment on board a Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) border patrol aircraft. The aircraft was identified as a Dornier 228, with tail number 5N-AUZ.
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Mrs. Dora Akunyili, The Information Minister, while briefing journalists after the weekly FEC meeting, went further to justify such expenditure by saying that “The new state of the art modern surveillance system will provide real time video down streaming of pictures through satellite and will allow for telephone communication between the aircraft and command post on the ground, or from anywhere and any telephone line with direct data transmission to NIS headquarter”.
When I saw this news article, the first thing that went through my mind was why do we need to spend almost $3.5m to retrofit a manned aircraft with aerial surveillance equipment when we can procure Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) also known as Drones, which I believe will provide more value for the Nigerian people. So I decided to dig a little.
I did some online research and located the specific aircraft to be retrofitted. The aircraft is a Dornier 228-101, with construction number 7167 and was built in 1990. However on an aviation website www.airport-data.com, the aircraft is listed as De-Registered, and there is no information about its air-worthiness. Another aviation website www.rzjets.net reported that the aircraft’s engine is currently stored. How will an aircraft fly when its engine is in storage?
Here are the questions that need to be answered before that money is released. Did the Ministry of Interior, which is NIS’s parent Ministry perform due diligence to determine if this NIS aircraft is even air-worthy? Did the Ministry present the FEC with a certificate of air-worthiness for the aircraft along with the approval request? If not, we may be dealing with a scam here. At least, an aircraft has to be able to fly safely before you can install aerial surveillance equipment on it. From some indications right now, it does appear that the aircraft in question may not be air-worthy.
Against this background, the FEC should as a matter of urgency initiate an enquiry to ascertain the air-worthiness of the 5N-AUZ aircraft before this money is released. I am not in anyway, saying for sure that the aircraft in question is not air-worthy. All I am saying is there is there is an appearance of impropriety that needs to be investigated. This is not the first time these supply and installation contracts have been found to be shady. Sometime ago, there was the saga of the OB Van TV equipment supply and installation contract that was gleefully announced to Nigerians by guess who? Mrs Dora Akunyili. This happened just before the U-17 World Cup hosted by Nigeria. So, there is probable cause, as well as historical antecedent here.
Talking about the wisdom of retrofitting an old manned aircraft against investing in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), I believe the UAV option is by far a better option. Here are some of the advantages that UAVs have over aircrafts with human pilots, at least in Nigeria’s case.
Endurance – UAVs can consistently fly continuously for upwards of 20 hours. Manned aircrafts can’t do this because of the limitations of having a human being in control.
Financial Sense – it makes more financial sense to leverage the $3.5m approved to procure UAV systems through existing bilateral agreements with countries that manufacture these vehicles, such as Israel, which manufactures the Hebron and Hermes range, Turkey, which manufactures a variant of the Hebron class, and the United States, which manufactures the Shadow UAV system. We may even be able to get the EU or the US to foot the bill by tying it with the upcoming elections. I do not have specific information, but some of the non-military grade systems have been reported to cost between $3.5m and $5m and sometimes these systems come with up to 4 UAVs. So, why would we want to retrofit an old aircraft, with all its limitations for the same amount? It just does not make sense!
Maintenance Cost – Going by any metrics, it would be far cheaper to maintain a UAV system than it would be for a manned aircraft. Manned aircrafts have to follow maintenance schedules that may involve flying the aircraft out of the country for an extended period of time, compared to UAV maintenance schedules, which are far in between. And because the system comes with multiple vehicles, other vehicles can be deployed to cover for the one that is out of service. The government is also well placed to exert leverage on the suppliers to commit to establishing a maintenance center in Nigeria. That is what is done by governments all over the world.
Deployment Time and Resource Training – As with every government project in Nigeria, no specific delivery date and training requirement was mentioned during Dora Akunyili’s interview, but with my limited knowledge of aviation projects, I can say with almost a 100% certainty that a UAV system can be deployed faster than the time it will take to retrofit the old aircraft. This is because the UAV systems are what we call “Out of the Box” systems that can be deployed within days not weeks. Also, it is far cheaper and less time consuming to train UAV operators, compared with the time and expense it will take to train pilots and then train on how to use the Aerial surveillance system.
Data Capture, Storage and Sharing – UAVs are known to have one of the most sophisticated data capture and sharing capabilities. In 2009 alone, US UAVs generated 24 years’ worth of video if watched continuously. New UAV models are expected to produce 30 times that amount in 2011. The extent to which the communications system of these UAVs can be integrated with other communications systems is remarkable.
Regarding which way to go, I leave you all to be the judge. See website links below.
http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/5N-AUZ.html
http://www.rzjets.net/aircraft/?typeid=93
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