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By Farah Waleed.
Tripoli, 14 April 2013:
The head of the army’s air defences, Brigadier-General Juma Hussein El-Abani, has confirmed that the Ministry . . .[restrict]of Transport plans to implement a major radar project to monitor Libyan airspace. It had been proposed by the Libyan army’s General Staff, he said
El-Abani told the Libya Herald that he had met Transport Minister Abdul Qader Ahmed to discuss the project, that the two sides had agreed to activate it and that it would begin with work at the radar station at Tripoli International Airport.
In addition, a civil aviation information centre would be built in Benghazi to act as a back-up for the main centre in Tripoli, El-Abani said.
The air navigation centre in Jufra would be under the direct control of the air defence forces which would also operate the radar station in Sirte. Radar stations in Sebha and Tazirbu would be upgraded. El-Abani said he and the minister had talked about supplying equipment needed to resume work at Tobruk radar station.
Re-building a radar system for Libyan air defences was one the most important challenges facing the armed force, he said, given that the system has been almost entirely destroyed by NATO during revolution.
It was needed, he said, to protect Libya’s airspace and to monitor the smuggling of arms to neighbouring countries and people and drugs into Libya.
Last month, El-Abani said that most of the country’s radar stations were now working again and that an operations centre for Misrata’s defence sector had been opened. He also said that unmanned drones were being used for the first time by the Air Force to carry out aerial surveillance. [/restrict]
