The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) is procuring a primary radar facility that can detect unauthorized helicopters and other aircraft even when they turn off their transponders.
Managing Director of NAMA, Mr. Lawrence Pwajok stated this when he met aviation correspondents at the weekend in Abuja.
He said the facility already being procured will complement the current secondary radar which doesn’t have the capability to detect low flying aircraft and aircraft that turn off their transponders to avoid being detected.
He said with this capability, Nigeria would achieve total radar coverage and no part of Nigeria will be blind to security watch.
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Pwajok said: “The primary radar has the capacity to detect every flying object, whether it wants to be seen or not but unfortunately, it requires a whole lot of power and energy, and all over the world, nobody can deploy a long-range primary radar system. So, for civil aviation, they are deployed within very busy and complex airspace like Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt”.
He, however, explained that in 2008/09 when the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) was installed, the military was supposed to also have its own using the Primary radar system but the huge costs involved made implementation almost impossible.
According to the NAMA boss, civil and military aviation would appreciate the funding of primary radar that would be total as both can interface on its usage and the benefits are humongous.
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