Army aims to keep pace with new technology

Conor Lally Security and Crime Editor

The Defence Forces needed to properly harness the "explosion" of data in modern society or risk making terrorist and criminal groups more powerful, Defence Forces Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mark Mellett has said.

In a wide-ranging address, he warned if the challenges posed by the rapidly developing knowledge and technology society were not met by the Defence Forces, “enemies” of the State that proved more adept would gain advantage.

However, the Vice Admiral said while the current rate of technological advancement posed challenges, the Defence Forces could shift from being a cost centre to an investment centre, with the potential to assist in being a profit centre.

Vice Admiral Mellett told the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) the Defence Forces was currently helping to develop kite-flying technology that would produce wind-generated power and become a “game changer” for long-range communications and surveillance.

The large-scale kites could be flown off ships, and generate the power needed to operate the vessels, or over land, he said. The surveillance technology would also give Naval vessels a surveillance range of 5,000 square nautical miles, a 10-fold increase on the current 500 square nautical mile range. It was an example of the kind of innovation that personnel who were “warrior-diplomat-scholars” could foster, he said.

The kite-based project, called Aeolus, involves the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Centre (IMERC); the Cork Institute of Technology's Nimbus and Halpin research centres; the Tyndall National Institute; and the University of Limerick. Funding comes from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Enterprise Ireland. A review of the project indicated it could create 3,000 jobs over the coming decade.

“(This would) change the military perspective from being a cost centre to an investment centre, with the potential to assist in being a profit centre,” he said. This “was not a bad thing because State security is inextricably linked to economic security”.

“Other utilities for this kind of technology include power generation for remote settlements such as refugee camps, peace support operations, as well as land-based surveillance reconnaissance,” he said.

Of the challenges facing the Defence Forces, he said he believed the Irish did not need to look far to see examples of the forces destabilising “civilised society”, some of which were characterised by “an extraordinary complexity”.

"Around us in Europe we see the instability in Ukraine, " he said. "In the Middle East and North Africa we see the impact of perverse networks, characterised by, for example, IS; stretching from Iraq to Syria… by criminal and drug cartels operating in South America and across to West Africa and up into Europe.

“These challenges seek to undermine the institutions of civil society; prioritising power, religious fundamentalism and criminality.

“No (resource); diplomatic, economic, military information or technological should be spared in the pursuit of the strategic end stage of the institutions of a civil society.

“Like civil society, freedom is not free. And that’s what we have almost 500 men and women of our Defence Forces on 15 missions in 16 countries and on one sea.

“These deployments are in our national interest and they help define us as civilised society.”

Within the United Nations mission in Lebanon (Unifil), the Irish deployment would increase from 181 troops at present to 330 next year, he said.

“The situation is calm but volatile,” he added of the mission which he would visit this weekend.

He described as "pensive" the situation in the United Nations (Undof) mission along the area of separation between Syria and Israel where Irish troops were also based at present.

And he revealed serious military activity in the area the Irish were observing, no details of which had been disclosed before now.

“I visited there three weeks ago,” Vice Admiral Mellett said.

"I witnessed anti Government armed elements in the south of the area of separation. In the north of the area of separation pro Government forces are supported by the likes of Hezbollah forces from Lebanon."

He had seen people apparently “harvesting mines” and also watched children playing in the area between the north and south by day, but by night the situation had deteriorated.

“It seemed tranquil (but) later that evening to the east of the area under control (of) the Irish, there was heavy artillery and heavy machine gun fire in engagement between Government and anti Government forces.”

Aside from these traditional military challenges, when he looked over the horizon there were “challenging vectors” including “population increase, declining resources, climate change, increasing organisation, growing mass migration”.