South African aerospace and defence company Milkor has highlighted that its locally developed Milkor 380 medium-altitude long-endurance uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV – popularly called a drone) can assist the Border Management Authority (BMA) to secure the country’s borders. The Milkor 380 is the largest UAV so far designed and built in Africa.

“The recent activities regarding undocumented foreign nationals have placed a spotlight on the urgent need for modern technologies to address our country’s porous borders,” pointed out Milkor VP: Africa Daniel du Plessis. “Milkor, a prime systems integrator of defence and security solutions, has tremendous capacity to assist with the implementation of dedicated solutions to be used to enhance border security and increase surveillance.”

For the most vulnerable segments of the national border, the BMA has developed an integrated plan, including closer coordination with other government agencies and involving high-tech aerial surveillance. The authority has already deployed aerial assets in the four border areas that have been prioritised for improved enforcement. These assets have proven most successful in detecting and allowing the apprehension of persons making unauthorised border crossings. The BMA is now continuously operating drones at these locations.

While border enforcement is exclusively a State responsibility, South African industry has been assisting the BMA with various pilot programmes, which include drone programmes. (Other such piloting projects include facial recognition technologies, electronic verification systems, mobile surveillance platforms, and armoured vehicles.) South African industry can provide most of the equipment and systems the BMA needs.

However, the drones so far used by the BMA are smaller, short-ranged UAVs. They are effective for specific border crossings and limited adjacent stretches of the frontier. But South Africa’s borders ran for thousands of kilometres, often in remote areas. Monitoring them requirea significant range and long endurance.

That was where the Milkor 380 came in. The company highlighted that this had a range of more than 4 000 km and an endurance of up to 30 hours. It had an operating ceiling of up to 9 100 m (30 000 ft), which allowed persistent and wide-area surveillance. Its payload suite was modular, allowing carriage of electro-optical, infrared and/or synthetic aperture radar systems, which in turn allowed 24-hour detection of movement by people or vehicles. The UAV could also be fitted with a satellite communications system, which would allow it to be controlled from a location that could be as far as 4 000 km away, permitting one control centre to operate drones covering the entire border.

The Milkor 380 has been fully developed in South Africa and is built in Cape Town. None of its components are subject to the US’ International Traffic in Arms Regulations.