Drone – the next step in securing Africa’s maritime environment?

A research associate at the University of Pretoria’s Ocean Regions Programme, Tshegofatso Ramachela, says Africa should be looking to unmanned systems to significantly improve its offshore security.

Speaking at the AAD conference at Waterkloof Air Force Base, Ramachela pointed out that drones can be operated at low risk with high rewards and that they come with a significantly lower cost than other traditional maritime vessels such as ships and submarines.

Many African coastal and island nations have limited offshore patrol capabilities, and some also lack sufficient air assets.

She said that, considering the personal safety of maritime security officers, it made more sense to deploy a drone to carry out surveillance of a vast area of water in dangerous conditions.

However, the continent faces a number of challenges which would affect the deployment and integration of drones into defence capabilities and doctrine.

Ramachela noted that drones cannot fully supplement traditional maritime forces, but they can serve as force multipliers.

The challenges include technological and financial constraints such as the cost of training operators and license fees, technical limitations, as well as gaps in legislation, regulations and sovereignty issues.

Currently, the main suppliers of these drones to Africa were the US, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Turkiye.

However, there are also several African-based companies that manufacture drones for maritime purposes, such as South Africa’s Milkor and Denel and a Moroccan tech start-up.

This year saw South Africa’s first locally designed and built unmanned surface vessel complete sea acceptance trials and debut internationally.

In Africa, drones have to date primarily been used to collect data and combat maritime crimes like piracy, maritime terrorism and monitoring pollution.

Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Angola and Seychelles are among those using unmanned systems at sea.

Seychelles is arguably one of the front-runners in using this unmanned technology and they operate long-range surveillance drones equipped with artificial intelligence to monitor their vast maritime area to combat illegal fishing.

There is also a concern that as Africa’s maritime security becomes increasingly militarised, the continent may become a testing ground for new prototypes including the incorporation of artificial intelligence.