Drone footage capturing activity around the US-installed radar at ANR Robinson Airport has raised eyebrows—and the government is taking notice. Defense Minister Wayne Sturge is reminding all drone operators to strictly observe the country's No-Fly Zones, which cover airports, military sites, petrochemical plants, national parks, and large public gatherings.
But the bigger question remains: if the radar is designed to detect threats, how did a civilian drone go undetected? To get answers, we spoke with Maritime and Security Consultant, Commander Norman Dindial.
00:00As one media house publishes drone footage of the A&R Robinson Airport showing a build-up of activities surrounding the U.S.-installed radar, it is not going to be a free pass for anyone to capture such footage.
00:14Defense Minister Wayne Stooge says flying in no-fly zones is a no-no. But more interestingly, we wanted to know if the radar really is of superior technological capability, how did the drone go undetected and does this represent an inherent weakness in the radar system?
00:32Maritime and Security Consultant Commander Norman Dindial explains that the radar is primarily designed to detect larger combative drones capable of carrying weapons, not small civilian drones.
00:46So they are much bigger and able to carry a heavier payload, so a heavier package because it will be carrying a missile or will be carrying something to detonate, right, an explosive device.
00:57So because of that, it means that those drones would be a bit larger because they have to carry an explosive incendiary device in order to detonate.
01:05So it would not be a small drone that's just coming up in the sky with just a pixelate camera package.
01:12He adds that the radar isn't meant to register threats from very close distances, such as a drone flying just above Tobago.
01:22This radar is to look far out. It is a radar that pushes out and extends the range of the American system.
01:32So the Americans will see further out. So it's not looking for things close by.
01:35So it would have been looking for drones or missiles coming from Venezuela or coming from a threat territory, not from coming within Tobago itself.
01:45But that doesn't mean the radar's defense system was inactive.
01:50Monitoring continues even if no immediate action is taken.
01:54If you incur in the zone, the one-kilometer zone and the 500-meter zone, they would have some inherent self-defense systems,
02:04covert self-defense systems that you would not have seen.
02:07So it was not visible to the public.
02:09Doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
02:11It means that they did not fire or initiate to take the drone down actively because there wasn't an active threat.
02:19But it doesn't mean that it wasn't being monitored.
02:21Commander Dindial warns that drone operators who breached no-fly zones could face serious legal consequences.
02:28They can verify who went up with that drone.
02:31And if there was some breach, if there was some breach in law, that flying, first that drone is flying so close to the airport.
02:39You can, that can be looked into.
02:41Whether or not that they broke the law by flying the drone so close to the airport,
02:45knowing that you're not supposed to in a no-fly zone.
02:48That's one.
02:48So you may find legal, they may have legal ramifications there.
02:54With the state of emergency still in effect, these violations could carry even heavier consequences
03:00as any activity compromising national security is taken seriously.
03:05Finally, Commander Dindial points to the growing U.S. presence in Trinidad and Tobago
03:10and the strategic implications for the future.
03:15Exponentially, the footprint of the United States is going to increase in Trinidad and Tobago.
03:19And we may find ourselves back into the era of the Shagaramas days,
03:23where you have actually determined that, okay, this is a beast here now.
03:27And we are going to be asking for it.
03:28Because we have reached the part of the justification that we have made ourselves a target for Venezuela.
03:37We are now saying that we don't have the capability or capacity to defend ourselves
03:42because we don't have any missile systems.
03:44Who are we going to ask for these missile systems?
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