Article Posted on : - Aug 03, 2015

KOCHI (PTI): As part of its initiatives to beef up coastal security, Indian Navy on Friday installed at the harbour here an automatic system, first of its kind in the country, that is capable of detecting, identifying, tracking and generating warning for all types of surface and underwater threats.

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba inaugurated the Integrated Underwater Harbour Defence and Surveillance System (IUHDSS), a state-of-art system, for the defence of Kochi.

The system, first of its kind in the country, was a part of Navy's initiative to strengthen security of the coastline and would be extended to other places also, Navy said.

It has been designed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) 'ELTA' of Israel and consists of Advanced Coastal Surveillance Radars, Electro-optic sensors and SONAR (sound navigation and ranging) for detecting presence of divers and other underwater threats to security, a Navy release said.

It is fitted in over 150 locations across the world, in Africa, South America, Caribbean and Mediterranean countries.

Post 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Indian Navy was tasked with securing of country's vast coastline of 7,516 km, covering nine coastal states and four Union Territories.

The Commanders-in-Chief of the three Naval Commands of the country were designated as C-in-C Coastal Security.

The task involved coordination with other stakeholders like Coast Guard, Marine Police and Fisheries.

The setting up of the Sagar Prahari Bal, availability of Fast Interceptor craft (FICs) and commissioning of the IUHDSS formed part of the naval efforts to beef up security of its own harbours, the release said.

The system, contracted by Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence in 2012, will operate under the control of the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Kerala).