Technology and training needs for national security

Dr. Ranjith Premalal De Silva

The 2008 budget presented to the parliament by the President includes an allocation of Rs.176 billion for national security, which is an increase of nearly 20 per cent of the allocation of the previous year.

Members of Parliament will hopefully vote today to accept the increased allocation for National security, administration of justice and law enforcement.

At present, everybody would undoubtedly agree that defense is the most sensitive, critical and important issue for Sri Lanka. Hence, it is of utmost importance to explore how this increased allocation could be utilised most efficiently and effectively for the intended purposes.

Today, it is a well understood fact that the war cannot be won through conventional strategies. Recruiting more and more soldiers for defense forces should not be the envisaged expectation from the increased defense allocations.

Further, the defense expenditure should not be valued as the per head cost to eliminate individual terrorist cadres.

In ancient kingdoms, the strength of military was measured in terms of man power as the war was fought man to man inflicting only human casualties to weaken the enemy strength. The damage or destruction to the property and infrastructure was not encouraged as a strategy except in the case of damaging agricultural crops for tactical reasons.

Mostly, the intentions were to conquer territory with all the available resources. However, in the modern era, it is not the man power in numbers which provides a comparative advantage in the battlefront.

The introduction of more advanced technological innovations and the training profile of the military outfit compared to the enemy are the keys to success in military maneuvers. It should also be understood that the enemy targets are not only the soldiers in the battlefront but also economic destruction making the entire society vulnerable.

Further, the focus of warfare has shifted from local command of a particular location to more distributed commands involving multiple strategic locations.

The ability to gather, analyze and disseminate information among multiple combat and logistic locations will be decisive advantage to our heroic forces.

In view of these facts, an attempt is made here to highlight the key areas where a considerable defense investment is required to achieve overall success in the military strategies against the terrorists. Combat training with advanced military armaments and coordinated intelligence based on high tech approaches should be a priority area for defense expenditures.

This would undoubtedly place our valiant forces one step ahead and make them innovate in their approaches against terrorism rather than merely respond (to attacks).

We should not forget the terrorist tactics to destabilise our intelligence network by targeting intelligence officers individually in the recent past. Surveillance and monitoring are the other areas which should intersect with the rapid technological developments.

It is imperative that we invest from the defense budget allocations for instruments and equipment which would provide the intelligence community with the capability to process and organise defense data and information with unprecedented speed, precision and flexibility so that real time information could be in the hands of field commanders to act upon. Inter-agency coordination is another key area where we need increased investments.

Suitable digital networking mechanisms need to be installed to regularize and coordinate the activities of various field level commanders and headquarters and also among the police and other civil defense authorities.

Terrorists have gained much advantage both in the battlefront and in their subversive activities in the south due to poor information sharing among various defense establishments.

During the period immediately after the CFA was signed there was lull in direct violence, terrorists managed to weaken our intelligence network not only through the assassination of key pillars in the intelligence sector but also by infiltrating into our intelligence sector to understand the operating mechanisms and approach procedures. It is time for us to strengthen our intelligence instruments with the support of advanced technology and training, using the increased budgetary allocations.

Satellite imagery is most commonly used for defense intelligence data gathering. Defense imaging includes video processing, signal processing and image processing. Leading edge 3D visualisation of the terrain, resources and constraints is the future for mission planning and operational management.

VIP security is another area where we need to coordinate among various defense agencies. Today, we are at a very decisive juncture in the separatist war where the protection of our national leadership would decide the safe future of our motherland.

There is no doubt that those who are responsible for VIP security have taken effective measures to thwart any air or ground attack. However, the question is whether we have really explored all possible eventualities that could lead to success for terrorists in eliminating their targets.

We have recently read reports on attempts made by the terrorists to tunnel a path between US and Canada. It was not long ago that we witnessed the long tunnel excavated by Kalutara prison inmates even without any earth moving machinery. Technologies related to tunneling are alien to most of us in Sri Lanka. It is possible that terrorists have access to these modern tunneling methodologies.

A few years back, mapping of Greater Colombo Water Supply Project was initiated with the finances and technical assistance from the Norwegian government. This project developed maps for all underground water supply systems identifying the locations, capacities and sizes of the large pipes in the network, regulatory mechanism and control point locations, etc.

What is the guarantee we have that these digital databases have not been transferred to terrorists. There are several large scale construction sites around the high security zone in Colombo.

Large volumes of earth work are being involved in these construction sites. What assurance do we have that tunneling work for terrorists is not underway on the cover of these constructions? Have our defense authorities done proper surveillance over these nearby sites to ensure the safety and security of our VIPs.

Security threats posed by an underground attack should be evaluated rather than our being complacent with the recently acquired anti-aircraft defense systems.

GPS technology can be efficiently utilized to detect the changes happening underground and periodic surveillance with GPS could eliminate the risks of any subsurface activities. Defence community should explore the possibilities of acquiring the new technologies for positioning such as European Galileo systems (to be operationalised in 2008).

In view of the above facts, it should be noted that the budgetary allocations for the increased defense expenditure in 2008 to be ratified by Parliament today is an investment towards the sovereignty of the nation in the long run.

The writer is Head, Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Peradeniya and Founder President, Geo-Informatics Society of Sri Lanka.