Gulf Countries Must Boost ISR, Sensors To Better Eye Iran

BEIRUT: Gulf countries need to upgrade and enhance the connectivity and integration of their command-and-control air defense centers, especially in the face of the Iranian threat, experts tell Breaking Defense.

Recently, the GCC “Belt of Cooperation” working group, better known as “Hizam Al-Taawun” (HAT), held its 10th meeting to strengthen the joint tracking of aircraft and coordination of air defense systems, with the participation of specialized delegations from the GCC States Armed Forces, a representative from the General Secretariat Military Affairs and a representative of the GCC Unified Military Command.

“During their annual meetings, parties review the previous decisions and recommendations and discuss the executive regulations of the GCC Cooperation Belt Working Group, in addition to completing what was reached in previous meetings,” said one military source who asked not to be named.

“But today, they all realize that the Iranian threat is getting greater by the second, so plans to enhance data sharing and the integration of command-and-control air defense centers is now heavily being discussed,” he added. “We wait to see what strategies will be adopted to achieve that.”

In early 2001, the GCC begun operation of the Belt of Cooperation’s aircraft identification and tracking system that enables them to monitor aircraft jointly in airspace over and surrounding their territories and better coordinate defensive activities. The HAT system is a distributed command, control, communications, computers and intelligence network developed by Raytheon.

“Systems like the Air Defense Operations Center (ADOC) for example are uniquely able to provide expanded capability against sophisticated, regional threats.” a Raytheon spokesperson said.

Back in 2004, the U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon an undefinitized contract action (UCA) for a Foreign Military Sales contract not to exceed $75.6 million to design and implement an Air and Missile Defense Operation Center for Qatar, the first of its kind in the region.

“ADOC can complement existing systems to provide significantly extended situational awareness and deliver actionable information to commanders,” the spokesperson added.

This comes at a time when the Houthis are attacking Saudi oil facilities and military sites, including the petroleum products distribution terminal in Jizan, in southwest Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border. This attack comes on the heels of another in 2019 on the Kingdom’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant.

“With the new types of unexpected threats, we are forced to think seriously about different approaches to improve our decision making, and most importantly, early warning capabilities,” said Khalid Al Bu-Ainain Al Mazrouei, advisor to the deputy supreme commander of UAE Armed Forces in a recent conference I attended.

“It is vital to sustain the region’s command and control centers to effectively counter all kinds of well-organized threats,” Al Mazrouei added, a complicated process that requires a “strong chain of command, a better shared awareness picture between GCC states, and an improved ISR and EW capability and effectiveness.”

How To Do It

Kuwaiti defense expert Ali Al Hashim said the complex regional situation requires radical moves.

“Given the vastness of the Saudi land, the country must deploy a fair amount of AWACS aircraft, ground radars and the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), a low-level airborne ground surveillance system that uses moored balloons as radar platforms,” he explained, which is “a challenging task.”

Hence, “Gulf countries could mimic the work of the US Central Command located in Al Udeid air base in Qatar where they can standardize the whole systems and eventually be able to operate them in one effective C4ISR environment,” he said.

He also added that common purchases and joint trainings will help Gulf countries achieve their goal and eventually protect themselves against the Iranian threats. “This could be a chance to work on common military standards and optimize mission effectiveness,” he told me.

To make it happen, they will need to build a centralized command center linked to sub-command centers spread across all countries and able to share and receive data in a synchronized real time, or at least semi-real time way, Mohamed Al-Kenany, military researcher and defense analyst at the Arab Forum for Policy Analysis in Cairo, says

“These centers could be built on C5I solutions and connected to early warning stations and air defense systems like the Patriot and THAAD and related radars for early warning and tracking missiles and air targets,” he explains. “In case any station gets attacked, the command center connected to it will automatically notify the main command center and other sub-centers, which will ultimately save time and effort and secure the speed in identifying the target and efficiency processing the info.”

However, this could only be achieved through a proper network-centric warfare technology that integrates ground stations and airborne command and control centers, like the AWACS and ISR aircraft, and connects with naval ships equipped with combat management systems and early warning radars, Al-Kinany told me.

“This would provide shared awareness that increases synergy for command and control, resulting in superior decision-making and the ability to coordinate complex military operations over long distances for an overwhelming war-fighting advantage,” he said.

Because the type of threat is now shifting from ballistic missiles to drones and cruise missiles, GCC countries must deploy point short to medium range air defense systems, electro-optic infrared sensors, and tactical airborne early warning balloons, among others.

“Electronic warfare systems are also keystone in modern and future warfare for jamming purposes and highly effective against swarm attacks,” he added. “Combining the work of electronic warfare and air defense systems has become essential to form a complete multi-layered defense system.”

However, Al Hashim sees beyond all that: “Let us assume they were able to set and effectively apply a joint integrated defense system,” he said. “The real challenge here is the growing Iranian cybersecurity threat. Iran has some of the best cyber warfare means and will be able to manipulate our IAD structure.”