<![CDATA[Israeli, US surveillance firms set sights on Southeast Asia as piracy, maritime tensions spike]>

A spike in armed sea robberies in Southeast Asian waters and heightened maritime tensions have opened new doors for surveillance firms as nations with borders or claims in the region shore up homeland and coastal defences.

Israel-based Controp Precision Technologies, which has traditionally served the US and European markets, is among those hoping to bag deals with client-states in the region at the Singapore Airshow, a week-long affair lasting through Monday that showcases new aerospace and other defence technologies.

The firm manufactures and develops electro-optical and precision motion control systems so countries can better track movements of suspect vessels and people near land and coastal borders.

"We see [our products] as having a benefit for any country that has got a coastal border and wants to know what's happening along the coast " who is coming and who is going," said Johnny Carni, Controp's vice-president of marketing for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

"More and more people are crossing borders to look for jobs illegally, and [some] smuggle cigarettes, alcohol and drugs."

Controp is showcasing its new technologies at the airshow, an annual gathering of thousands of defence and aviation officials that has been pared down this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A Singapore Air Force F-15SG fighter jet participates in an aerial display at the Singapore Airshow in the city state. Photo: AFP

Carni said the company's surveillance products would allow border-control officials to identify human targets within a range of 5km and automatically track boats within a radius of 12km, among other functions. This would provide a "virtual fence" over the waters, allowing the easy detection of intruders from the sea " something Carni said is particularly relevant amid the surge in piracy incidents in the region.

"Every country has its own needs, but every one would want to control its borders well," said Carni, who added that the firm has partnered with Singapore's NCS Group, an information technology and communications engineering company owned by Singapore Telecommunications.

COMBATING PIRACY

According to a watchdog group that tracks maritime security, piracy along Southeast Asia's Straits of Malacca and Singapore " one of the world's busiest trade routes " surged in 2019, rising to 30 incidents from just eight in 2018.

The group " the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) " said that it was the highest figure since 2015, when 104 incidents were recorded. It warned of the possibility of further attacks, since none of the perpetrators have been apprehended.

Just last week, two ships in the Singapore Strait were attacked by pirates, with one resulting in some engine parts being stolen. This brought the total number of incidents in the waters to six since January.

Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen has made clear that the country's maritime security task force is planning to strengthen its assets amid the rise in sea robberies, while elsewhere, Malaysia and Japan teamed up for the first time in a maritime exercise last month as they aim to tackle piracy incidents and better control the risk of oil spills.

With the increasing need for sea monitoring by various countries, international surveillance companies are rushing to fill the gap. One of these, Israeli defence technology company Rafael, rolled out at the Singapore Airshow its new Electro-Optics/Infrared (EO/IR) system, which has long-range imaging abilities that are typically used for military or law enforcement.

One of its products, the MicroLite, would allow governments to continuously monitor a large area of the sea while also being able to focus on specific targets of interest.

A Rafael spokesman said the company is currently working with the Singapore government.

COUNTERING CHINA

Apart from filling the need to safeguard nations' borders against armed robbers, some companies at the airshow were also offering help in boosting countries' maritime defences against the backdrop of a fast-rising China.

American company Integrated Surveillance & defence, for one, was offering to modify potential country-clients' military assets, including aircraft and helicopters, by installing sensors and surveillance systems on them. This would allow the countries' militaries to tap advanced capabilities, such as radar that can track up to 200 nautical miles and optical sensors that can view targets over 40km away.

"We have an advanced formation system that basically allows the operator on the aircraft to see all of [any particular] ship with the AIS transponders," said the firm's president, Blaise Dagilaitis, referring to the automatic identification system, an automatic tracking framework that uses transponders on ships. "So if there's a target or a boat on the surface of the water that's not transmitting with an AIS, then that's a suspect vessel."

Dagilaitis said the company has modified assets from the Indonesian Air Force and Navy, and is currently working on a project with the Malaysian Air Force.

Many militaries now deploy officers to view sea targets with handheld binoculars, he said. "But that's old technology. What you want to do these days is to put a radar on the nose [of the aircraft] so you can track and video " something more automated," he said, adding that the company's technology would allow militaries to pinpoint exact locations of targets.

Dagilaitis explained that the company has always been Asia-focused, given heightened tensions amid territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

China and several Southeast Asian nations have overlapping claims in the resource-rich waterway.

While most have backed down from direct confrontation with Beijing, Vietnam has engaged in stand-offs with Chinese ships entering its exclusive economic zone, while Jakarta has in recent months rebuked Beijing after a Chinese vessel entered its waters near the Natuna Islands, off the northwest coast of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia and Malaysia.

Visitors at the Singapore Airshow. Photo: AFP

Dagilaitis said that these are often incidents of illegal fishing as the mainland blurs the lines of ownership of the resource-rich islets.

"This creates problems ... mostly due to the Chinese impact of establishing man-made islands that now create Chinese territories in the middle of the South China Sea, and they draw a ring around that and say [others] can't come in," he said.

"It's ludicrous."

The surveillance systems could also target areas, such as the northeast of Borneo, where there are "known piracy threats", he said, acknowledging the increased pressures on militaries to act.

"There is a huge threat in this region and everyone understands that or are beginning to understand that better."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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