BENGALURU: With a formidable coastline of 7,516 Km that makes protecting it paramount as much
as challenging, the Indian Coast Guard is scouting for emerging technologies to boost its maritime surveillance against sea-based intruders.
Addressing a seminar on ‘Advancements in Maritime Surveillance Systems & Assets A Key to Optimised Operations at Sea’ at Aero India 2023, Coast Guard Commander (Western Seaboard), Additional Director General KR Suresh, said “The future of maritime surveillance assets and systems will be characterised by increased use of realtime technology, automation and satellite-based and unmanned vehicles, integration of enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of our operations... Cooperation and collaboration will play an instrumental role in economics and optimising operations.”
Some key responsibilities of Coast Guard in maritime protection responsibilities include: Protection of artificial islands and offshore terminals, protection of fishermen, protection of marine environment, prevention of marine pollution, assisting the Customs and other authorities in anti-smuggling activities, enforcement of maritime laws, etc. In all this, emerging technologies will play a vital role in not only managing situations, but also preempting them.
ENGRAV Aviation Services & Systems MD S Padmakumar, said, “The current focus of maritime surveillance is to see what’s out there detection, and what it’s doing and tracking, and its identification. Significant technological advances have been made. Several onboard sensors, radars, electro-optical and infrared sensors, UAVs, underwater autonomous systems, all are there to detect and track. The challenge, however, is to see if everything at sea can be detected,” he said.
“For instance, small boats could move undetected. For identification, there are automated identification systems, which, however, can be manipulated to provide false information. Even if anything is detected and tracked, it does not reveal the real intent of any perpetrator... and then, what should be the response strategy - reactive, proactive, deterrent, etc. All this large volume of operational data could clutter decision-making,” he elucidated.
“Emerging technologies could help address this. If data can be brought in, the different machine learning algorithms and AI engines can handle the analytics part. It can be Descriptive what is happening right now; Diagnostic why it is happening; Predictive if it remains so, what will happen; and Prescriptive what is the need of the hour.
It has to be an integrated approach involving sea and air assets, onboard sensors, and even satellites... This is probably a way forward for a futuristic, maritime preemptive response. A transformation from a reactive maritime surveillance doctrine to a preemptive one, which would need an integrated bottom-up and holistic approach.”