National Day/ Armed Forces, Qatar's Pride and Shield

Doha, December 15 (QNA) - Qatar's armed forces are the country's protective shield that shoulders the responsibility of preserving and protecting the borders in line with military and security standards and according to the security strategy necessitated by the nature of the border areas. Besides its duties in guarding and securing the state's land, air and sea borders, securing vital zones and accompanying domestic senior officials and visiting foreign ones along with Lekhwiya, the armed forces pay the greatest part of its attention to the protection of Qatar's economic waters and what they contain of oil, gas resources and fisheries as well as Qatari-controlled islands. The armed forces also carries out regular patrols in cooperation with Abu Samra port security and the Interior Ministry's southern security division in order to watch herdsmen and border violators. Using helicopters and fighter jets, daily patrols protect the borders, and the armed forces direct their radars to monitor air, ground and sea borders. To perform these duties, 15 coastal monitoring stations were recently set up to support the National Security Shield project, coast and border security. Also, surveillance equipment, such as radars and thermal cameras, was installed in all monitoring stations of the Emiri Border Guard, which was also given an observation and reconnaissance mobile unit. Through the maritime operations center, the armed forces command and control the movement of boats and naval forces in the economic waters of the state. The armed forces has recently signed a contract for the construction of marine towers, while the final stage of designing a marine platform and marine towers for vital institutions is underway in coordination with Qatar Petroleum. The armed forces are part of a committee that prepares wired and wireless networks for emergency plans so as to secure vital zones. It also employed three helicopters delivered by Italian firm Augusta and Westland as air ambulance in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Additionally, a committee was set up to review the development of the air forces' air defense system. As for operations and training, the armed forces have carried out several exercises domestically and abroad with GCC states and other friendly countries, including Egypt and Jordan. The armed forces regularly hold courses for officers and soldiers in its institutes and schools in technical and professional fields. It also offers courses in English, French and Farsi languages and has sent 1,386 officers and other ranks to Doha-based coursed as well 941 personnel to military courses abroad. In the area of conferences and exhibitions, the armed forces participated in many of them whether in Doha or other countries such as the UAE, France and Greece, which greatly affected administrative performance, raised combating efficiency and deepened ties with armed forces of brotherly and friendly countries. The Qatari armed forces signed military cooperation agreements with Thailand and Bulgaria, and agreements with Tunisia, Morocco and Britain on military and defense cooperation as well as the exchange of expertise and military courses. It also signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and. Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction, the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and the joint cooperation agreement between the Qatari and French defense ministries. As much as the armed forces are carrying out their military and security roles, they are shouldering their duties and responsibilities on the civil front as well. The armed forces cooperate with the various security entities to secure and protect civil activities held in Qatar and take part along with the different ministries in humanitarian, social and sports activities. The Environmental Security Division organizes several activities on the protection and maintenance of environment. The armed forces are also heavily involved in developing and executing emergency plans for vital and economic state facilities and provide aerial assistance for all ministries, such as shooting, transportation and radiation detection in the event of earthquakes in neighboring regions. They also effectively contribute to international humanitarian relief operations. The Qatari armed forces has successfully participated in humanitarian relief operations in Djibouti, Eritrea, Libya and several African and Asian countries. Among their cultural and sports achievements is holding Quran memorization contests, organizing courses for sons of military staff at the armed forces training institute, and holding language courses and receiving Arabic language students from friendly countries. The Military Sports Association took part in several meetings that enhances sports cooperation on the regional and international fronts. Locally, Al-Jaish club took part in HH the Heir Apparent handball cup while the table tennis team won the league this year. Moreover, the club's football team managed the third place in Qatar Stars League 2012-13. The armed forces is planning many future projects such as a new base, receiving new helicopters, receiving new transport aircrafts, moving the air forces to Al Udeid Air Base, the renovation and maintenance of ports and berths of the naval base, a project on satellite communications for senior leaders, satellite encryption of the communications system, securing communications equipment to maintain the secrecy of the Peninsula Shield Force's signal, identifying sources of signal interference, the project of homeland security shield, the calling of the armed forces personnel via SMS and the construction of new headquarters for the administrative affairs department. In addition, a new medical services building is currently being allocated and the internet server and the domestic military electronic portal are being updated. The armed forces is also working on modernizing military equipment and arms of the special forces unit, establishing a petrol station at Al-Sailiya camp and finishing the construction work at the supply and processing department's football playground. (QNA)