By By CHYRINE MEZHER — breakingdefense.com — BEIRUT: In this exclusive interview, the commander of the Lebanese Air Force, Brig. Gen. Ziad Haykal, tells Breaking D about the current strategies adopted to boost Lebanon’s ISR capabilities, the challenges encountered along the way and the Air Force’s plans for the future. Three Phase Plan:

Recently, the Army Command developed a strategic plan aiming at boosting the country’s aerial reconnaissance capabilities to the highest level possible for its land and naval border regiments, with the goal of surveilling the land and sea borders and curbing illegal activities, while also protecting gas platforms in the future. “This came on the heels of devoting our aerial reconnaissance capabilities to monitoring activities and movements of terrorists on the northern and northeastern borders, throughout the years of 2009 and until 2017 — which happened to be the end of “Fajr al-Joroud” Operation,” he explained. Back in August 2017, the Lebanese Army launched Operation Fajr al-Joroud — Dawn of the Outskirts — against Daesh (ISIS) positions on the outskirts of al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek towns, killing 35 militants in the process as they sought to eradicate the last vestiges of militant threats to national security. Divided into three stages, the plan links reconnaissance aircraft of all kinds with functional cutting operations rooms on one hand, and the army, air force and navy command operations rooms on the other. “This facilitates the decision-making process by increasing the awareness of activities around the target,” he said.

The first stage is investing in capabilities to meet, even partially, the operational demands of reconnaissance missions – a move that the Air Force started implementing after the end of Fajr Al-Joroud Operation in 2017. “For this purpose, specific operating instructions have been issued for several scenarios simulating the realities of the challenges and are now being applied,” he explained. The second stage is “getting the equipment we need from the U.S military aid program, in addition to equipping the necessary infrastructure,” he said. This includes the fiber-optic network, computers, and related programs, as well as the protocols to be adopted to connect the operational rooms, among others. The third and final stage requires “installation and connection of the whole scheme of operations and the training of the operating personnel,” he continued, in addition to the “implementation of joint exercises between all parts and devices concerned, while identifying weaknesses and the appropriate mechanism to address them.”

The Challenges

Mainly, the Air Force relies on its Cessna Caravan 208B and Scan Eagle aircraft to perform ISR missions across its borders. It operates three Cessna aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles and equipped with a surveillance and reconnaissance system, aa well as two Scan Eagle systems, with a third planned for 2021. The Cessna was first operational in 2009 for surveillance, reconnaissance and close air support missions and is heavily used in anti-terror operations against Al-Nusra Front and ISIS organizations on the Lebanese-Syrian border, and Fajr Al-Joroud Operation. More than 2,500 flight hours were carried out and more than 100 laser-guided Hellfire missiles were fired during these battles, with 90% effective hits. As for the Scan Eagle, it became operational in 2015 and boasts more than 6,000 reconnaissance flight hours. “Having these kinds of aircraft required changing and adding a special structure of pilots and technicians to operate and maintain them, as well as aerial imagery analysts for study and investment,” Haykal explained.

However, the Lebanese Air Force still faces technical, and operational challenges. Apart from weather, the surveillance and reconnaissance systems equipped on the Air Force’s aircraft remain vulnerable to electronic interference. “This is one of the most important difficulties that we face during our work in all the Lebanese airspace, and the solutions lie in providing these devices with special anti-electronic jamming equipment,” Haykal said. On the operational side, surveillance must be carried out at a high rate in a way that guarantees the longest possible period above the target that also allows the collection and investigation of the largest amount of information, in addition to ensuring real-time surveillance at the appropriate time. “This requires effort and perseverance from all security services and operational entities concerned, and groups operating the aircraft, including pilots, technicians, pilots of unmanned aircraft, and imagery and information analysts,” he explained. Another challenge is the complex geography of the land borders, “which makes it difficult to discover targets and provides an ease for terrorists and outlaws to hide,” he added.

Future Plans

The Lebanese Army and American authorities are discussing a draft of a strategic plan developed by the Lebanese Air Force to modernize their Cessna and Scan Eagle aircraft while keeping pace with the scientific development of the related equipment and electronic gear equipped on board, the commander told Breaking D. “It is a five-year plan funded by the American aid program and based on receiving new updated Cessna aircraft with the goal of keeping at least three of them operational and equipped with advanced systems,” he said, adding that “the plan for the Scan Eagle is to develop and modernize available platforms through adding a more sophisticated and reliable digital protocol for anti-jamming works and Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) payloads for scanning tasks overseas.”

Still, the Air Force’s goal is to operate unmanned aircraft equipped with smart laser-guided weapons, the general revealed — “not an easy path, given the restrictions forced on the armed drones, though.” On protecting its oil and gas assets, the Army’s leadership developed strategies to strengthen maritime and air capabilities of all kinds “to meet the requirements of carrying out oil and gas assets in a manner that guarantees the security and protection of the resources,” Haykal concluded.

The plan is to increase the number ships and helos to both the air force and navy with the help of the French aid effort known as CEDRE. The Conference for Economic Development and Reform through Entreprises is part of a comprehensive plan for reform and infrastructure investments as prepared by the Lebanese authorities and presented during the 2018 conference. Part of the aid pledges include a long term loan to bolster theLebanese army’s abilities to controlling the waters and economic zone. “We expect an additional four to five 70-meter frigates and, if the budget helps, one or all of them will be able to carry helicopters on board,” he told me. “To the air force, we expect three to four search and rescue (SAR) helicopters that can also perform interference missions over the sea.” Topics: C4ISR Middle East, Cessna Caravan 208B, Fajr Al-Joroud Operation, france, Gen. Ziad Haykal, Lebanese Air Force, Lebanese Army, lebanon, Scan Eagle