Photos Algerian People's National Armed Forces

Super Lynx Mk-130 - Algerian Navy - SAR

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NIMR's AJBAN LRSOV (Long Range Special Operations Vehicle) for the 104th and the 116th operational maneuver regiment - RMO

Saïd Chengriha resumes hunt for aerostats without Lockheed


Less than two months after having succeeded army chief of staff Ahmed Gaïd Salah, Saïd Chengriha has relaunched the National Popular Army's (ANP) procurement programme. The first item on his menu is the huge contract for surveillance aerostats for the oil fields and national borders which was at one time due go to Lockheed Martin. The ANP has looked at aerostats as a means of providing security at Sonatrach sites following the attack on the In Amenas oil production site in 2013 [...]

According to our sources, Colonel Slimane Mallem, who was appointed military attaché in Washington by Gaïd Salah shortly before he died last December, recently renewed contact with several suppliers of high altitude balloons, each with capacity to survey thousands of square kilometres thanks to their ultra-high definition cameras, thermal sensors and radar.


Originally thought up as part of a Russian proposal put forward by Rosoboronexport, the project was subsequently extended to take in border surveillance. In the end, Lockheed Martin was chosen to supply five giant aerostats, supplemented by helicopters and two MC-27J Spartan aircraft from Italy's Leonardo group. The big American group kept increasing the cost of the project, however, until it was way above the $375 million price agreed for just the balloons. Gaïd salah's hostility toward the project and then a series of dismissals within thé ANP's high command finally led to lockheed martin dropping the project in late 2019, the group substantially reduced its presence on the aerostat market, moreover, Several of lockheed martin's American rivale are already in the running for the abandoned contract. Raytheon, which has provided to balloons at several American bases in Iraq, already has a contract with the ANP to supply three highly sophisticated intelligence aircraft.

Raytheon's spy planes ready for final descent to Algeria.The resumption of negotiations between Algiers and American defence groups should be facilitated by the settlement of the long-running saga over the intelligence aircraft ordered from Raytheon in 2016. Faced with the advancing age of its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleet, the ANP placed an order worth over $1 billion for three Gulfstream G550 aircraft covered with sensors. But the contract quickly got bogged down, Raytheon had no experience of systems integration of this kind of aircraft. It turned to Oklahoma-bases sub-contractor field aerospace but this company quickly found its own limited in the face of the record number of cameras, radar sets and interception devices demanded by Algeria's generals. On November 29 and february 3, Raytheon took two of the three aircraft off the American federal aviation register, a necessary step prior to their delivery to Algeria.

TCOM, meanwhile, won a $979 million framework contract from the US Defense Department in September to meet all the American armed forces's surveillance aerostat requirements until 2024. Algiers is also thought to have contacted France's Thales group. The latter's Stratobus has not yet been put on the market but Thales has already carried out projects using small aerostats supplied by fellow French firm A-NSE

Secondary Air Deployment Base at Aïn Amenas Which houses a squadron of Mig 29 fighters from the 3rd air defense regiment and a detachment of Mi-24 Mk III attack helicopter and Mi-171Sh Multipurpose helicopter for monitoring/securing the lybian border

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taclan c2 system or the Tactical Local Area Network within algerian land forces