The Dutch Defence Materiel Organization and Thales Nederland signed a contract this month for the delivery of one additional Gatekeeper electro-optic surveillance system. This system will be installed on the Netherlands’ Navy’s HrMs Amsterdam as a part of an extensive upkeep programme. Gatekeeper is scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2011.
In the changing tasks of modern navies, fast combat support ships are also participating in maritime security operations, like the current anti-piracy missions of NATO and the EU. The increased situational awareness provided by Gatekeeper has become necessary for a safe operation during such operations as Gatekeeper provides a continuous fully automatic surveillance and alerting function in daylight as well as at night and during all kinds of weather.
The four Gatekeeper modules are not mounted in one dedicated mast but will be incorporated in the ship’s existing superstructure, with three modules in the front of the ship and one in the back.
Gerben Edelijin, CEO of Thales Nederland says: “ We are very proud of the trust the Royal Netherlands Navy puts in the Gatekeeper’s capabilities as this is the ninth Gatekeeper system under contract for them.“
Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper is a 360° panoramic surveillance and automatic alerting system based on IR/TV technology. It provides short-range situational awareness and ship security both at sea and in port 24/7 without crew on deck. Not only will this significantly reduce manpower requirements it is intrinsically safer and offers a less aggressive posture to the outside world. Gatekeeper will even increase situational awareness compared to human observers as it is not susceptible to fatigue and works better under low-light conditions or in adverse weather.
Gatekeeper is a very flexible and easy to install system, because of its modular sensor heads that can easily be integrated on existing and new-build ships, either stand-alone or as part of the Thales I-MAST configurations. Gatekeeper is presently under contract for the four Netherlands’ Navy’s Holland class patrol ships, the Joint Support Ship, the Johan de Witt class LPD and the four Belgium and Netherlands Navy’s M-class frigates.
