Acquisition strategies : determining the design requirements and managing the procurement process for the next generation of patrol craft for the Saudi Border Guard

Abstract

The Saudi Border Guard (SBG) undertakes a major responsibility for securing more than 800km of the Kingdom borders, which are surrounded by 14 countries; 10 of them with direct land borders, and four which are separated by the Red Sea and Gulf of Arabia. In addition to the location of the most holy Muslim places of Makkah and al Madina. All these factors make the responsibilities of the Saudi Border Guard (SBG) to be difficult tasks, especially with the increasing activities of smuggling, illegal immigration, illegal trade, terrorism and piracy. In addition there is the need to protect the territorial in terms of fishing, and leisure and to provide guidance, help, and rescue of people and ships that may be in distress, in Saudi sea waters and in the adjacent international sea transport lines, in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Arabia. Obviously the huge number of acts of piracy in recent years, especially off the Somalia coast, must be part of a new era in the Middle East future. Thus for these and other reasons an efficient fleet of SBG vessels must be employed. There are increasing numbers of people who try to cross the Saudi borders illegally in order to find jobs, to visit the holy places, to engage in illegal trade, or for other purposes. This is especially so owing to the poverty of some of the regional and other countries with high populations (for example the SBG stopped 37,000 people attempting to cross the Saudi borders from Yemen, on the first 20 days of Ramadan, 2009, according to the SBG archives), as well as due to regional political conflicts. Thus there is a need for a strong capability not only in terms of quantity but also in quality of the SBG future. In this project a survey has been carried out in the form of questionnaire and interviews to SBG members in order to ascertain the degree of the shortfalls in the recent SBG fleet and to provide inputs to proposed specifications for the SBG future fleet. However this expected result of this survey is not completely effectiveness fitness for purpose but help to provide usefully information to the designer in order to define the proposed requirement. In addition there are considerable navigation difficulties, around the Saudi coasts in both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Arabia. This is especially so along the Red Sea coast, which is considered as being one of the most dangerous of seas for navigation. The Saudi territorial waters along the Red Sea are characterised by extensive coral reefs, which cause considerable difficulties for local navigation, especially for free ranging Coast Guard Vessels. There are no accurate maps for navigation along the coast of the Red Sea, nor of the random spread of the coral reefs. All of these factors must require the SBG to create a comprehensive plan for the determination excellent ship specifications in order to meet with the SBG mission requirement in the future fleet, and in addition to make use of newly developed technology for efficiently searching and monitoring borders. Geographic political forecasts and new developments in technology must be taken into consideration during the first stage of planning to develop and define the suitable specifications of vessels the future fleet for the SBG. Internal studies within the SBG as well as studies within SA as a whole must be concentrated in the official members of the SBG and related government officials, with the task to continuously survey and discuss all aspects not only of teaching, to achieve the required result, in the way to plan for the next 20 to 30 years of the development and operations of the SBG fleet. This study looks at the overall acquisition process for the provision of the new craft that will be necessary for the Saudi Border Guard to be able to accomplish its future missions. This will involve ensuring that the new vessels will be able to effectively and efficiently undertake the many and diverse operational tasks that will face the SBG over the next 20 to 30 years. Given that uncertainties will exist and develop in the foreseeable future, such new vessels must have a degree of flexibility in meeting their operational requirements and be supported by a shore staff organisation that anticipates and responds to technical problems and developments as and when they occur.