The director of air traffic services (ATS) at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Tayo John said there is the need to overhaul the entire radar system and replace the outdated one with the latest version.
John stated this yesterday during a visit the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) site at the international wing of the Aminu Kano Airport.
During his interaction with air traffic controllers who were on duty, the ATS director said Nigeria needs a brand new radar system.
To buttress the call for the new equipment, John explained that despite its technological advancement, the country’s radar was lagging lacking behind the current edition used in most parts of the world.
He remarked that the manufacturer of the equipment, Thales of France, had done two augmentations while the one used in Nigeria was yet to be improved upon.
“This system (the radar) is already automated but it is obsolete. I won’t say it cannot guarantee the safety of operations; it can but the system needs to be augmented.
“The producer of this system is called Thales. They have done about two augmentation and we are still where we are,” he said.
However, he said the government had started to modernise the system “but the major solution is to buy new radar for this country.”
To maintain efficiency and safety of flight positions across Nigeria, John said the country’s airspace is well structured and sectorised and backed up with adequate redundancy systems that will be operational in the event of a system failure.
Speaking on a major component of the equipment at the site, the director said: “This is an automatic system; this is a technologically advanced automated system that gives you the aircraft identity, the altitude it is maintaining, the direction the aircraft is flying to and the speed of the aircraft except it is directed by the ATC to change course.
“In terms of security this is the first phase you see aircraft coming in at a particular altitude; this is where you see aircraft descending or climbing out of a particular place, without this system you cannot see them.
But you see in Nigeria due to power problem, sometimes it fails. Right now it is obsolete; the labels are dropping; that is why we need a new radar system for safety and efficiency of air navigation in Nigeria and again for the safety of the flying public.”
At the rescue coordination centre of the TRACON, Tayo said NAMA “is able to efficiently and adequately monitor and coordinate rescue operations from its major two centres in Kano and Lagos and other centres in Abuja and other locations.”
He commended the other stakeholders in the rescue mission for collaboration whenever the need arose.
“We are able to coordinate rescue operations from here. We have other rescue sub centres under Lagos and Kano in collaboration with all the stakeholders including the military, Air Force, army, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Nigeria Fire Service of each state, Julius Berger, oil companies, among others,” he said.
