The Deep Blue Project in Nigeria – Launch Update

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Arete closely followed the launch of the Deep Blue Project in Nigeria last week notably how the initiative will affect offshore operations for businesses and individuals.

At the ceremony last Thursday, Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh said “With the deployment of the assets of the Deep Blue Project, we are entering another level of national security designed for total spectrum maritime security and better domain awareness using some of the latest technology. This effort to secure our waters will give Nigerians more leverage to harness the enormous resources of our maritime environment and aid the drive towards economic diversification.”

Here are some of the project assets that were unveiled as a part of the launch:

2 Special Mission Vessels (the DB Lagos and DB Abuja, built by Shipyard De Hoop in the Netherlands)
3 AW109 helicopters
16 Proforce armored vehicles
2 Cessna Citation CJ3 maritime surveillance aircraft,
17 De Haas Maasluis DHM1050 interceptor boats
4 Tekever AR3 unmanned aerial vehicles
A C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence) Operations Centre
600 personnel strong Maritime Security Unit (MSU)

In the #AreteDeepDive article published last week, our in-house expert noted that – “Local Navies’ ability to respond to incidents has also been undermined by a lack of technological architecture to support the Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence (C4I) functions that are critical for a timely and effective response.”

Clearly, NIMASA has accounted for C4I as part of their Deep Blue Project which is encouraging, however as mentioned in the deep dive, this project, while a step in the right direction, should not be seen as a quick fix for the ongoing maritime issues the region has seen in recent years.

Overall the launch was welcomed by many stakeholders in the industry, not least the ICS and BIMCO, and Arete will continue to monitor the rollout of the project from our Joint Operations Centre (JOC) in Lagos, Nigeria.
#security #safety