Malaysian Armed Forces launch Tetrapol comms system

Earlier this year, Malaysian Deputy Defence Minister, Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal, inaugurated in Sabah, Eastern Malaysia, the Tetrapol network used by the Malaysian Armed Forces.

The launching of the network system, known as 'Teratai', enables the security forces to check on piracy and incursions by illegal foreigners immediately.

Malaysia, having an area of 329,750 km2, is composed of two distinct and separate parts: the mainland part called the Malaysian peninsula, that is, Western Malaysia, and the northern part of the island of Borneo, called Eastern Malaysia, made of the two states of Sabah and Sarawak. These two parts of Malaysia are separated by a 600 km stretch in the South China Sea. Communications must, therefore, be optimal to assure Malaysian Armed Forces protection in particularly dangerous intervention zones.

The Teratai system uses technology from the French firm, EADS Telecom, and has been installed by a local company, Sepakat Computer Consultant Sdn Bhd.

The minister confirmed that if an undesired incident broke out in Sabah waters, the security forces would be able to communicate among themselves quickly and send their troops to the location within a short time.

The system is providing fully secure communication between the Army, Navy and Air Force within the Sempoerna region, and enables secure communications back to Kuala Lumpur as well. The voice-data network responds well to the specific constraints of military operations in the region including: totally secure communications; interconnectability with existing systems; capability to create an in-operation mini-network, having, for example, a plane or a boat communicate with the Army; and capability of communicating equally as well in the mountainous regions as in the very dense forest areas or out at sea in a very corrosive, saline environment.

Malaysia is now the tenth country where the Ministry of Defense is benefiting from the technological know-how provided by Tetrapol to respond to the requirements of security, actor interoperability, quality of transmission, optimisation of development costs and simplicity for technically supervising the network.