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Thursday, November 29, 2012

■ SENEGAL: ASECNA signs $35million contract with Thales, INEO Engineering for Radar, ATM Systems.

The Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (L'Agence pour la Sécurité de la Navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar) or ASECNA has signed a USD35million contract with a French consortium comprising Thales Air Systems SAS and INEO Engineering & Systems for the supply and installation of Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radars (MSSR) with Mode S capability in addition to its Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems.

ASECNA's 6 Flight Information Regions
ASECNA's 6 Flight Information Regions (FIR) (memoire)
Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, ASECNA manages 16.1 million square kilometres of airspace (1.5 times the size of Europe) covering six Flight Information Regions (FIRs) – Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Dakar Oceanic and Terrestrial, Niamey and N’Djamena. ASECNA Air Traffic Control centres are based at international airports in each of these cities.

The equipment will be installed at eleven control centers and will improve the quality of air navigation services avialable to users of ASECNA managed airspace, and will also significantly increase the resources available for monitoring of air traffic and modes of communication between pilots and controllers.

This programme adds to the radar and ATM systems already installed in five (5) of ASECNA's centres and is a major step forwardin improving the efficiency and quality of air navigation services.

The contract, which is expected to last 21 months and is worth USD35million, includes all equipment and auxiliary services necessary for the project, including provision for data links for information distribution radar, radar site facilities associated with ATM, and all hardware, software (including licenses for use of software), project management services, training and documentation.

MSSR radars will be installed at the following sites: 
  • Nouakchott (Mauritania), 
  • Bamako (Mali), 
  • Bissau (Guinea Bissau), 
  • Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), 
  • Niamtougou (Togo), 
  • Cotonou (Benin), 
  • Douala (Cameroon), 
  • Libreville (Gabon ), 
  • Bangui (Central African Republic), 
  • Antananarivo (Madagascar), 
  • Moroni (Comoros).
ATM systems will be installed at the following sites: 
  • Nouakchott (Mauritania), 
  • Bamako (Mali), 
  • Bissau (Guinea Bissau), 
  • Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), 
  • Lomé (Togo), 
  • Cotonou (Benin), 
  • Douala (Cameroon), 
  • Libreville (Gabon), 
  • Bangui (Central African Republic), 
  • Moroni (Comoros), 
  • Malabo (Equatorial Guinea)

ASECNA signed a loan with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to the tune of EUR40million to finance the deal, with additional funding coming from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank.