Finmeccanica Drone offer a confession – Minister

THE OFFER of drones to fill the gaps in Panama’s radar system that monitors its coasts was hailed as “a confession that the system doesn’t work” by Minister of Public Security Rodolfo Aguilera.

“The initial proposal was to calibrate the radars again,” Aguilera said. “But this had already been done, and they still didn’t function properly,” reports La Prensa.
Panama purchased the radars for $125 million from Finmeccanica in 2010 as part of a $250 million deal that also included the purchase of helicopters.
The radars were supposed to improve coastal security by detecting speedboats used by drug traffickers, but so far have not functioned as advertised. Only seven of the 19 that were purchased have been installed so far.
He said the suggestion by the company to use drones to patrol regions not covered by the radars is evidence that the original contract was flawed.
Aguilera also reported that Friday, April 24 representatives of the Panamanian Government will hold a teleconference with Finmeccanica executives to evaluate the proposal.
The minister added that the company still has not delivered the digital map that will allow authorities to see the monitoring done by the radars in real time.
The Minister explained that Finmeccanica sent a letter with the proposal to the Panama embassy in Rome on March 27. It was in Italian and had to be translated into Spanish, which was why there was a delay.
The letter mentions the installation of three new radars and the delivery of drones for areas where radar coverage is not sufficient. It was signed by Finmeccanica CEO Mauro Moretti.
A government source said Panama will ask for two surveillance aircraft instead of drones. These aircraft would be capable of patrolling the coast between Costa Rica and the Darién in an hour.
“They [Finmeccanica] have these planes and they cost $25 million each,” said the source.