Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) is crucial for air safety and surveillance. Engineer Farouk Umar, Managing Director of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), has an uphill task to integrate a Primary Radar component to TRACON.
Functioning both for air navigation and security, TRACON with all the right components can save the country a major security lapse. Especially with reports in the past of alleged unidentified aircraft dropping food and arms in the Northeast.
TRACON spans nine sites across Nigeria, linked by Very Small Aperture Terminal (V-SAT) networks covering a 256 nautical mile radius. Sites in Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Ilorin, Talata-Mafara, Obubra and Numan overlap coverage ensuring comprehensive radar surveillance across the country.
During TRACON’s development in 2008/09, plans for a military Primary Radar system were considered but shelved due to high costs, hindering optimal security and surveillance capabilities.
A Primary Radar system emits radio waves to detect and locate objects by analyzing their reflections, providing essential surveillance of aircraft, ships, weather formations, and geographical features, by receiving said reflected radio waves.
Also, one of its key importance is its independence from relying on aircraft or ships to send signals before it can detect, hence its importance due to aircraft flying into the country undetected. It simply detects any object that reflects the radar waves.
NAMA has gone on record to explain in detail the disadvantages of not having a primary radar system. It has equally sought National Assembly’s intervention for funding for the cost-intensive equipment as it would go a long way in checking illegal aircraft operations.
” The challenge of not having a primary radar system is a very serious one. We’ve had instances where we were accused of not being able to detect helicopters that do nefarious activities.” A former NAMA boss had said.
According to him, if these illegal flights operate within 60 nautical miles of any of the four international airports, they will be detected. However, he explained, any operation outside that once they switch off that radar equipment, NAMA cannot see the equipment.
Primary radar offers position and speed of targets but cannot identify aircraft or provide altitude information. This is unless paired with additional systems like Mode C transponders.
An anonymous NAMA source reveals plans to modernize TRACON by adding primary radars and mode S transponders to all sites.
Research reveals that Primary radars are often used alongside secondary surveillance radar (SSR). The SSR relies on transponder signals from aircraft, to provide a more complete picture of air traffic.
Civil and military aviation should integrate a primary radar into TRACON to strengthen airspace security and coordination.
