Karannagoda's sonar story and the Invincible blast

A contrast of the rough waters outside the Colombo harbour gates and the relative calm within, where the Qinetiq system actually managed to pass some trials and (inset) Vice Adm. Wasantha Karannagoda inspecting the sunken MV Invincible

Navy forces SLPA into buying a sonar
system rejected in 2005 by a TEC

Navy blocked installation of sonar for
'security reasons'

Saliya's attempts to salvage tender
procedure foiled by Navy Cmdr.

No sonar system in any Lankan harbour
to date despite tender beginning in 2004

By Ranjith Jayasundera

It has transpired that a diver detection system purchased by the Ports Authority was sitting in a box - uninstalled - while the navy support vessel MV Invincible was sunk on May 10 inside Trincomalee harbour.

The so called 'X-Type' diver detection sonar system was procured on lease in April by the SLPA after a 2004 navy tender for such a system was scrapped last year, after three years of head scratching and waffling. The X-type was one of three systems shortlisted by the navy under former Navy Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, before the tender was scrapped in 2007.

It is learnt that the SLPA sonar system had arrived in Sri Lanka on May 6, yet its supplier, a British company named Oceanscan, has failed to take steps to install the system up to date. The Sunday Leader contacted the Oceanscan head office in Aberdeen, Scotland, and a spokesman redirected us to the local agent for Oceanscan, Tess (Pvt) Ltd.

A director named Shiran Fernando from Tess confirmed that the SLPA had leased a sonar system from them at a cost of 157,000 sterling pounds last April but declined to elaborate on why it has not been installed nearly two weeks after it arrived in Sri Lanka. "There are procedural issues, not technical ones. I don't want to say anything else because the media has already caused problems with this issue. You can speak to the navy or Ports Authority if you want more information," he said.

Blocked by the navy

Sources within the Ports Authority told us on condition of anonymity that the installation of the system in Colombo harbour has been blocked by the navy, citing 'security reasons.' An SLPA official based in the harbour said that even after thoroughly inspecting all the equipment the navy yet insisted on preventing the installation of the SLPA sonar system.

Thus it so happens that the only navy in the world that is currently at war has prevented the installation of a sonar system to detect divers 'for security reasons.'

The same SLPA official also claimed that the Ports Authority had filed a complaint with the harbour police against the navy, for preventing the installation of their diver detection system. This was confirmed by another official employed in an SLPA administrative department, who did not wish to be named. He told The Sunday Leader that the navy's objection to the installation of their sonar system is that the Defence Ministry and navy are applying pressure on the Ports Authority to force them into buying another sonar system selected by the navy.

Even after the MV Invincible was sunk, the navy continued to block the installation of the Oceanscan sonar system. The Sunday Leader was able to obtain a letter written by a director of the Scottish supplier to Ports Authority Chairman, Saliya Wickremasuriya, which was copied to the Navy Commander's office as well as to the Defence Secretary.

Navy specifications

The letter was received via fax at Navy Headquarters on May 12. Referring to 'the unfortunate incidents in Trincomalee' Sales and Marketing Director of Oceanscan, Manel Montero, said that his team "who are already in Colombo can, if you prefer install the X-Type Sonar system initially intended for the North Gate at Colombo harbour to SL Ports Authority harbour in Trincomalee."

Montero concluded that his system was "specifically designed to SL Navy specifications with minimum use of underwater cables" and thus that he could have it "deployed in a maximum time of 48 hours in any location" and that Oceanscan would "guarantee that the system can provide coverage as required by the SL Navy."

Manel Montero was apparently not based in Sri Lanka at the time of writing, so we contacted Tess's 'Fernando.' He declined yet again to reveal his first name - who told us that "we have already got a contract" from the Ports Authority and that "we aren't trying to sell this thing again as they have already leased it. But because of administrative problems our issue is that our staff and infrastructure are here and we are incurring costs until the system is installed."

When we asked him if he was aware that the problem was to do with the navy blocking the installation, Fernando was evasive,  saying "if there is a police report then it must be true but I can't tell you anything about this as it would only cause more problems for us."

Tested and evaluated

Sources within the Ports Authority told us that the decision to procure the Oceanscan X-Type system was taken after trials conducted in August in collaboration with the navy, wherein at least two systems were tested and evaluated. Along with the X-Type system, a turnkey sonar solution called Cerebrus from British defence giant Qinetiq, was also evaluated.

The fact that Qinetiq's Cerebrus was even evaluated is a point of contention given that the navy had decided, under Admiral Sandagiri to reject their bid for a variety of reasons in June 2005.

The Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) for the sonar tender, chaired by Navy Commodore T.M.J. Mendis, cited several reasons for being against the Qinetiq offer, chief among which was the 'vague' nature of the company's description of their system's ability to 'cope with local conditions.'

As the tender called for the sonar system to be on the outer perimeter of Colombo Harbour during trials, 'local conditions' were the heavily turbulent (and noisy) monsoon seas not found in more temperate climates, as well as the thermal currents that go with it.

Not upto the mark

Although the Qinetiq Cerebrus did not fare too well in the open seas, the system performed better when it was moved into the calmer waters of the inner harbour, facing the entrances. As the Cerebrus is mounted out at sea, the equipment was not able to cope with the strong August currents, and the level of noise in the open ocean had interfered with its performance.

Inside the relatively peaceful harbour too however, the Cerebrus was only able to detect a closed circuit diver on its second trial attempt, after some technical adjustments were made. A closed-circuit diver is one who does not give out air bubbles, and is thus difficult to detect, only given away by the sounds emanating from the diver's lungs.

The Oceanscan X-Type passed the trials by being attached to the outer wall of the harbour, but a spat broke out between the navy and SLPA when the former asked that the X-type also be tested for its performance inside the harbour.

The navy insisted that both systems should be evaluated under all conditions whereas the SLPA - which was to foot the bill - was of the opinion that the specifications called for the system to only perform on the harbour perimeter and that it was improper to force one bidder to modify his system to suit another.

Better performance

In the end the SLPA chose to acquire the Oceanscan system for its better performance in the harbour's outer perimeter, and also citing the company setting up an office in Sri Lanka and the willingness to move parts of its sonar research and development facilities to Sri Lanka.

The local agent for Tess, Fernando, declined to confirm Oceanscan's intentions to migrate its facilities to Sri Lanka. "We are working in both Sri Lanka and Scotland on this but it would be wrong for me to discuss the arrangements with anyone until all this stuff is finished," he said, referring to the controversy over the installation.

Meanwhile, the navy has brought down the Qinetiq system to Colombo once again, despite it having being rejected by the last tender's Technical Evaluation Committee. In a series of bamboozling and obnoxious manoeuvres, the navy is trying to force the SLPA not only to throw out a certified system that it has procured and paid for, but also to get the SLPA to foot the bill for their new toy!

The Sunday Leader reported over a year ago on March 25, 2007 that Navy Commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda had displayed a vested interest in the Qinetiq system by writing in his official capacity to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and canvassing for their bid.

In fact, Qinetiq wrote directly to Vice Admiral Karannagoda after our article alleging that his company had earned the "support of leading Defence Primes and establishments such as the British High Commission and Defence Exports Services Organisation," for its "honesty and discrete nature" of transacting business.

A tall tale

This is a tall tale to say the least, as the British authorities would naturally support any British defence company that requests their assistance for a major project, in the interests of trade and strengthening ties between the two countries. Sri Lanka's missions abroad have been known to help our own firms in a similar manner.

Since then it seems, the Admiral has not taken much interest in securing his harbours - as demonstrated by the May 10 LTTE attack on Trincomalee - but has instead been engaged in bossing around the Ports Authority to smuggle in his pet projects.

The attack on Trincomalee harbour shows that thanks to absolute negligence, the LTTE enjoys the ability to strike at our eastern naval operations at their whim. Despite a tender stretching over three years - a period in which Galle harbour was attacked, and an attempt was foiled by luck on Colombo Harbour - the Navy Commander has been unable to do much except get in the way of the SLPA's attempts at securing Sri Lanka's ports.

The LTTE has not attacked Trincomalee harbour successfully since April 19, 1995 when a suicide squad came in over-water and destroyed two ships, killing 12 sailors. In the 13 years since, it is absolutely remarkable that the navy has been unable to get an adequate sonar system up and running inside the harbours.

Ceasefire Agreement

Admiral Karannagoda himself is among the club that likes to blame the Ceasefire Agreement for allowing the LTTE to rearm itself with sophisticated weapons. If he was so sure that the LTTE was so well stocked up, he should explain why he has spent his time as Commander of the navy on controversial tenders instead of working to counter the threat of LTTE divers.

One retired navy officer told us that the Navy Commander was trying to pressure the Rajapakse brothers to favour Qinetiq under the guise of it being 'backed by the British government' because of the fact that the President's son, Yoshitha Rajapakse is currently deployed on a UK Navy vessel. "He is using this family interest to scare them into going with Qinetiq despite the fact that it is more expensive and inferior," they said.

Given the history of military procurements going haywire when tender procedure has been meddled with, we have to ask whether it is prudent to go about procuring a system to protect our most active commercial harbour (one next door to the President's House) as well, from divers, by using all the lopsided tactics adopted by Admiral Karannagoda to-date.

Security threat

Should LTTE divers manage to infiltrate the harbour through the sea undetected - a possibility if the Qinetiq system lives up to its track record in Sri Lanka's turbulent seas - they would be able to simply jump or blast through a wall to get into the President's House, a fact that should not be lost on the President himself, and those tasked with his security such as the PSD and the armed forces.

Tender procedure works in three stages. Bids are evaluated and some shortlisted. The short listed bidders have their equipment tested, and finally the tender is awarded. Qinetiq was rejected at the bidding stage, and by the graces of Admiral Karannagoda they magically reappeared at the trial stage. Qinetiq then failed to make their system function outside the harbour, so the navy changed their specification to allow a system to detect divers after entering the harbour.

Now, despite objections from the Ports Authority, Admiral Karannagoda has wielded the 'national security' and 'family' sound bites to force the Ports Authority to buy a system that has been rejected every step of the way.

The final question is why this system was not purchased through Lanka Logistics and Technologies Limited, and why it was landed on the Ports Authority instead, given the huge defence budget for 2008. The losers here are not going to be the Ports Authority or rival bidders, but it is the lives of navy sailors - of whom Admiral Karannagoda is in command.