New Signals Training School complex inaugurated at Burma Camp
The Deputy Minister of Defence, Mr Kofi Amankwa-Manu, has inaugurated the new Signals Training School (STS) complex at Burma Camp in Accra yesterday.
The 30-room facility built by the German Armed Forces Technical Advisory Group (GAFTAG) has administration offices, three laboratories for drone, cyber and radio.
Other facilities include five classrooms, two workshops, a 100-capacity auditorium, library, two server rooms, a storeroom, a roof training area with attached 30 meters high radio transmission tower and washrooms.
It is expected that, the new STS complex will enhance training and capacity building of officers in modern military communication.
Mr Amankwa-Manu said the STS complex was the first phase of GAFTAG’s support to the school, which would culminate in the installation of electronic and cyber warfare laboratories, as well as training and exchange programmes in line with short to medium-term projects in the next four years.
He mentioned that in order to remain relevant as extremist groups on the global stage, domestic terrorist groups like the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), Boko Haram and its splinter group Ansaru had rebranded, thereby presenting a myriad of militating against economic growth and emancipation of the sub-region.
“The possibility of continued or increased collaboration between these terrorist groups in the near future makes it important to examine their typologies of motivation which include criminal kidnap-for-ransom and politically-motivated terrorism,” he added.
Mr Amankwa-Manu said the Signals Training School in collaboration with the Department of Defence Communication and Information System (DCIS) and the Ghana Armed Forces Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) would develop strategies to ensure optimum use of this facility to enhance training in cyber and electronic warfare.
He urged the Commanding Officer and staff of the school to maintain and use the facility to the benefit of all beneficiaries and students.
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, said the facility was an important achievement in the long term cooperation between the two Armed Forces adding that “Germany is ready and willing if we are requested to continue and expand our cooperation in the security field.”
He mention that support from the German government would be need-based and such needs should be defined by the GAF.
The Signal Training School traces its origin to the Gold Coast Wireless Company which was part of the British Colonial Force in the Gold Coast.
During World War II, it participated in the war in a support role and subsequently became a training squadron after the war.
After Ghana’s independence, the Gold Coast Wireless Company was reconstituted as a Signals Training Squadron to train personnel on military communications. It later became the main communication training institution for the military and other sister security services until it was renamed Signals Training School.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU
