Spanish company negotiated a contract to renew Libya's obsolete air-defense system

Spanish F18 hornets operating over Libya may have flown into a much more sophisticated, yet familiar air defense system designed by Spanish firm Indra were it not for the tardiness of Libyan bureaucracy and the speedy deployment of the airborne attack on Muammar Gaddafi by coalition forces.

The contract to modernize Tripoli's obsolete air-defense system included nine three-dimensional radars; control centers, equipment for electronic warfare and communications systems. It would have cost over 200 million euros. However, although talks began in 2006 and got another push in January 2009, when King Juan Carlos visited Tripoli- where Gaddafi received him in the ruins of his Bab al-Azizia palace, bombed in 1986 on the orders of then-US President Ronald Reagan- the contract was never signed, according to an Indra spokesman speaking on Sunday.

The Spanish company, a leader in the information technology sector, did set up a new automatic air traffic control system in Libya, with control towers in Tripoli Benghazi and Al-Jufra.

The contract was awarded in 2006, at a total cost of 48 million eurosand the new system was implanted over the following years. In 2009, three radars were handed over for navigation and control of civil air traffic for 12.7 million euros.

Gaddafi was so pleased with Indra's system that he asked for it to be rolled out for his armed forces. Military exports to Libya resumed in 2004 after the European Union lifted the embargo imposed in 1986. One year earlier, the United Nations had made the same decision, once Gaddafi committed to paying$2 billion in damages to the victims of the Lockerbie terrorist attack, and dismantled his program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Although the definitive contract was never signed, experts from Spain's CNI secret service have collected information from the company about the scale of the project and the characteristics of the Russian-built air-defense system now in operation, which it was due to replace. Civil air traffic control system has potential military uses, and for that reason its sale had to be authorized by the interministerial committee that controls arms sales and dual-use equipment. The Spanish company's relationship with Libya is not confined to the field of air navigation. Indra also has a contract with electric company Gepcol to modernize its commercial area with a new communications network.

Furthermore, the Spanish firm, which has offices in Tripoli, was one of the numerous companies from over 20 countries- including the US, France, United Kingdom and Germany- which took part in the security and defense fair Libdex 2010, held last November at the military airport of Mitiga, outside Tripoli.

All these projects have been spiked by the recent decision to suspend all exports of material for defense ends, or with a dual use, to Libya that was adopted by the United Nations and applied by the European Union.