Joris Janssen Lok writes:

Italian-based SELEX Sistemi Integrati on June 6 achieved the first milestone of its 20 million euro project to install an extensive, integrated, networked coastal security surveillance system in Yemen -- the country in which the Aegis destroyer USS Cole was hit in a major terrorist attack in October 2000.

The milestone involved the inauguration of the operations room in the system's national command center in the capital Sana'a.

(Photos: The inauguration ceremony attracted senior executives from Italy and Yemen. (SELEX Sistemi Integrati)

Deliveries will continue through 2008 and will eventually comprise the national control center in Sana'a, an area control center in Aden, six local control centers, 12 radar stations and two mobile sensor and control units. The overall system covers 450 km of coastline including the full width of the pirate-infested Bab-al-Mandab strait, plus Yemen's coastal waters in the southern part of the Red Sea (facing Eritrea and Somalia) and the northern part of the Gulf of Aden -- notice the radar coverage zones on the left of the desktop display in the photo at right that shows the operations room.

(Photo: Part of the system's national control center in Sana'a. (SELEX Sistemi Integrati))

The new system represents a first step of a wider surveillance program including  two further development phases. The Yemenite system will be used to help prevent piracy, intrusion, international smuggling and will be open to allow integration of further capabilities for naval security.

Earlier, SELEX has already supplied comparable coastal surveillance and vessel traffic systems to Greece, Italy, Russia and Poland. Marina Grossi, the company's CEO, says that the centre in Sana'a “represents a further international success for SELEX Sistemi Integrati’s know-how in the field of Homeland Security.”