News Source: Asian Defence Journal
Special Interview With MINDMATICS’ Dr Abd Rahim Mat Sidek
The Malaysian company, which provides comprehensive range of solutions in IT, computing and electronics. ADJ Today held a special interview with its technical operations and projects manager Dr Abd Rahim Mat Sidek, at the DSA & Natsec2024.
ADJ: With growing concerns about maritime security in Southeast Asia, what specific solutions does your company offer to enhance Territory Domain Awareness (MDA) for countries in the region?
AR: In recent years we have seen a lot of military build-up in the South China Sea. Those activities can be focused on three main regions which are the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Scarborough. Those three areas can be described as “The Big Three” areas in which potential conflict flashpoints would likely occur between all the disputed parties including Malaysia. Involvement of forces such as China, US and all other Southeast Asia (SEA) countries has increased in recent years. Thus, it is important for us to have “eyes” in those particular areas in order for us to respond to any incoming threats on our territorial sovereignty and also economic interest in the area. Mindmatics offers a wide solution with regards to the early warning systems, by introducing a long-range surveillance radar for early detection and monitoring of all forces loitering in the region. The monitoring can also be done passively by applying the equipment with COMINT, ELINT and SIGINT-capability equipment, to gather intel on all the forces operating in the region.
ADJ: Effective MDA often requires integrating data from multiple sources. How do your solutions ensure seamless integration with existing territorial security?
AR: Seamless Integration is possible if all the agencies are willing to disclose all the protocols of their own agency communication system. The development of our defence solution with regards to the communication and data-sharing were developed by upholding the concept as per lined up in the Malaysian Defence White Paper 2020, Chapter 4 – Commonality of doctrines, procedures, systems and equipment is very important to achieve interoperability between the three services of the MAF and also between the agencies that would increase efficiency during joint or combined operations and minimise cost. Our systems were designed in an open architecture concept that will adapt to all the existing MAF and all other National Agencies’ equipment and assets.
ADJ: How do you integrate infrastructure and facilitate information-sharing between different agencies?
AR: Mindmatics has always emphasised an open architecture design in all of its equipment to be able to integrate with all other gadgets, equipment, systems and assets from other agencies. Informationsharing is the key agenda in our design and thus it will provide a hug advantage to our clients in terms of integration with respect to the information-sharing between the existing and future systems.
ADJ: From piracy and terrorism to illegal fishing and trafficking, maritime threats are diverse. Can you elaborate on how your MDA solutions can be customised to address the specific challenges faced by countries in this region?
AR: Piracy and terrorism operates in a different spectrum rather than conventional military forces. Thus a certain method needs to be implemented in order to deal with these types of threats. Mindmatics and the Malaysian Armed Forces have been together in this field since 2019 with the ESSCOM establishment. Our GSM Radar Locator has played a vital role to ensure our sea passages in the vicinity of Lahad Datu (Sabah) are free from any intrusion.
ADJ: New sensor technologies like drones and Al-powered surveillance systems are playing an increasingly important role in MDA. Does your company offer solutions that incorporate these advanced technologies, and if so, how do they improve situational awareness?
AR: The combination of Cyber Operations with Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities forms up the Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (GEMA) efforts to protect Critical National Information Infrastructures (CNII). EW is a promising countermeasure element in combating drones of all sizes and mission profiles. Defence can be carried out through EW to disrupt the navigational system, comm_unication, fuses and weapon trigger functions, and may potentially take over the control of drones.
Mindmatic offers a combination of sensors, weapons and Al technology. Potentially, Al will increase the efficiency of the computation time and would shorten the time taken for a warfare commander to make a final decision on how to affect a certain situation.
ADJ: Budgetary constraints are a reality for many countries. Can you discuss how your MDA solutions are designed to be costeffective, offering high value without placing an undue burden on national resources?
AR: The development of our solutions are mostly done in-house by local expertise thus it contributes to less production cost in terms of manpower, setting to work and also spares.
