Qatar Launches High-Tech Border Security System

Airbus Defence & Space announced on the sidelines of DIMDEX 2014 that a state-of-the-art border security system for the National Security Shield (NSS) is now up and running in Qatar.

Airbus Defence & Space senior vice president, head of Europe, Middle East and Africa Jean-Marc Nasr said the company had finalised the deployment of the advanced security system to the Qatar Ministry of Interior and Armed Forces.

“I am pleased to say that in this country we have put in operation the most advanced border surveillance system ever developed in the world for maritime and terrestrial areas,” Nasr said during a presentation delivered at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC), the venue for this year’s Dimdex.

Nasr, who described the security programme as “the most evolved solution worldwide,” said the system is composed of surveillance towers and surveillance vehicles equipped with different sensors such as radars, cameras and direction finders that are distributed throughout Qatar.

The Qatar Border Guards and Coast Guards are now capable of monitoring land sectors, coastal border sectors, offshore sites, and 600km of Qatari borders that are prone to security threats like human trafficking, illegal migration, terrorist attacks, piracy, illegal fishing, and smuggling, according to the Gulf Times.

Aside from border and coast guards, the surveillance system can also be utilised by other military sectors like the navy, air force, land force, and even government agencies, Nasr said.

“All sensor data and images,” according to Nasr, “can be accessed from any of Qatar’s operational sites.”

He also stressed that the border security systems are operational “24 times 7” and can be used “in all kinds of weather conditions and in all kinds of situations.”