Ever since the historic Spanish Armada attacked the Great Britain in her glorious days of the past, the think tanks of this great land have been continuously anxious to protect her from all directions. After all, the United Kingdom is basically an island – open from all the sides and open for all sorts of invasions and attacks.
This is why the increasing threat of terrorism, illegal immigrants and piracy in the recent days has made the maritime surveillance an essential weapon to secure the United Kingdom against all these menaces. It is urgent and utmost requirement of an island state like United Kingdom to keep a close watch on the coastal areas and the surrounding seas to protect and help the thriving safety, prosperity and environment of this land that our political leaders often boast of.
Maritime surveillance is not only a mechanism of defence, but it can also save the lives of people. In the hands of armed forces of the nation, it can help the nation defend herself in times of submarine warfare, surface warfare, pirate ship attacks; while in the hands of non-military forces, it can help save the lives of people through search and rescue missions, effective border control and environment protection.
Due to its broad application, this type of surveillance is a layered capability for collection of information through a myriad number of sources. It can involve satellites, patrol aircrafts, helicopters, ships, unmanned aircrafts (drones) and more. Depending on the task at hand, all these assets can work together or independent from each other to collect the vital information needed. Historically, a maritime patrol aircraft called Nimrod MR2 had been playing the main role of surveillance in the UK until the government canceled it and replaced it Nimrod MR4 which never made it to the daylight.
The future of the maritime surveillance assets in the United Kingdom does not look very gloomy as it has always been in the past. The government has planned many assets for near future that cover many areas like submarine detection, shipping surveillance, fleet protection, counter terrorism, border protection, weapons deployment, emergency communications, counter pirate operations, search & rescue missions, etc. All these assets are going to be completely capable of working alone independently for smaller missions or they may collaborate with each other for joint larger missions that require a large number of man power and a varied amount of technology.
It can be said that we are in the days of extreme turbulence and upheaval, but the responsible forces inside the United Kingdom are more than willing to face the new challenges that are surfacing in new forms every day. The forever changing face of terrorism, the modern day pirates with their new powerful ships, the torrent of illegal immigrants finding new illegal paths of entry into the United kingdom and the organising and execution of the humane missions – these are all challenges that are facing the United Kingdom today. We can only hope and work hard diligently to come through with flying colours.