The Command and Control and Information Warfare group of the Defence, Peace, Safety and Security unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has made significant progress over the past five years in helping secure South Africa’s borders, and remains focused on this task.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is responsible for securing the country’s borders, having been reassigned this duty by the government in November 2009, replacing the South African Police Service (SAPS).

“Our group focuses on command and control (C2) elements, working very closely with the SANDF and especially the South African Army and Joint Operations,” group principal engineer Cobus Venter told Engineering News Online. “How can we improve C2 in that [border] environment?”

The group develops concepts, test them in its laboratory, and then takes them into the field and tests them under real conditions. Currently, the focus is on communications systems and situational awareness, which together create a picture which allows the commanders on the border to understand what is going on in their areas of responsibility.

“For example, we take existing SANDF equipment, developed for conventional warfare, and test its suitability for the current priorities of border security and peacekeeping operations,” he cites. “The border environment is much more complex that a conventional warfare environment, as you have a mix between people who are supposed to be there and people who are not supposed to be there – and it’s not always easy to tell the two apart.”

One of the projects the group is running is seeking to integrate the SANDF’s existing C2 and intelligence systems, using both systems to create one situational picture. “This is our main focus at the moment,” explained Venter. “Not on developing new products, but developing mechanisms to integrate existing products. We’re working with local industry to do this. In the future, we plan to integrate the information and intelligence systems of other departments, including the SAPS, into the SANDF border C2 system.”

Venter participated in the fourth CSIR Biennial Conference, which had the theme “real problems, relevant solutions”, which was recently held in Pretoria.