Maldives tests Turkish drones to boost surveillance capacity
Some media reported that the agreement with Turkey to operate drones in Maafaru is worth about MVR 560 million.
By
Fathmath Ahmed Shareef
After being elected and sworn in, President Muizzu first visited Turkey. During his visit, he inspected Turkish-made military drones and reportedly signed an agreement to bring them to Maldives.
However, the President did not mention the agreement at the conference where he shared a briefing on his visit.
N.Maafaru has been designated as a base station and drones have been brought from Turkey this month. On Wednesday, videos of the drones flying went viral on social media.
Some newspapers reported that the team from MNDF had gone to Maafaru to operate them. However, neither the government nor the MNDF has released any official information about the drones or their flights.
Even the MNDF has not yet announced who is operating the drones, how many drones were brought to Maldives or the amount of money spent on the drones.
When contacted by Atoll Times on Thursday, the MNDF said the information would be released very soon, but did not say when.
Questions sent to the President's Office and the MNDF have not yet been answered.
Although the government has not yet announced any official information about the drones operated in Maafaru, Aviators Maldives posted on Wednesday that a Bayraktar TB2 drone flew over Maafaru on Wednesday. Such drones were used in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Some media reported that the agreement with Turkey to operate drones in Maafaru is worth about MVR 560 million.
Although the government has not disclosed information about the operation of these drones, the President said he would set up a 24-hour non-stop, economic zone monitoring system this month, during his official visit to R. Meedhoo recently.
The President said that day:
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Maldives does not have its own power and capacity to maintain the economic zones
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Even though 99% of Maldives is sea territory, much of this area has not been managed by Maldives to date
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So even if others enter this vast area and use it illegally, there is nothing that can be done, no matter what kind of danger comes; there is nothing that can be done without asking help from others
"So, what we're doing now, hopefully starting this March. We will put in place a system this month to maintain the area 24 hours nonstop," he said, without giving details of what system he was referring to.
