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Fact Sheet: Information Fusion Centre (IFC)
4 April 2014
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Details of the MH370 Search and Locate operation being shared among various International Liaison Officers at the Information Fusion Centre.
Hosted by the Republic of Singapore Navy, the IFC is a regional Maritime Security (MARSEC) information-sharing centre. Inaugurated on 27 April 2009, it aims to facilitate information-sharing and collaboration between partners to enhance maritime security. Through the speedy sharing of information, it facilitates timely and effective responses from partner countries for MARSEC incidents. With linkages to 65 agencies in 35 countries, and with 16 International Liaison Officers (ILOs) from 15 countries currently working in the IFC, the IFC has played a role in resolving various MARSEC incidents. For example, it has provided timely situational updates on ships hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden to facilitate better operational decisions. In Nov 2012, through the IFC's real-time updates, the Vietnam Peoples' Navy and Vietnam Marine Police (now renamed Vietnam Coast Guard) were also able to localise a hijacked Malaysia-flagged tanker, the MV Zafirah, in the South China Sea and arrested the perpetrators.
To support the Search and Locate (SAL) operations for the missing the MH 370 flight, the IFC first consolidated a situation picture of the SAL operation in South China Sea and Malacca Strait. The details of the SAL operation, including assets deployed and search sectors where available, were then shared among the various ILOs and Operation Centres that were linked to the IFC. With the shift of the search to the Southern Corridor, the IFC also engaged commercial ships transiting the Indian Ocean through specific IFC advisories to more than 330 shipping companies to report sightings or nil sightings to the IFC. This was to create awareness for all the partners, and also to assist the SAL coordinators, who could take into account the relevant information to decide the allocation of resources for their subsequent searches.
The IFC also conducts capacity-building activities such as international information-sharing exercises and MARSEC workshops, for example, the biennial Maritime Information Sharing Exercise (MARISX) and the annual Regional Maritime Security Practitioner Course.
The ASEAN ILOs in IFC also serve as the Permanent Secretariat of the ASEAN Navy Chiefs' Meeting. As the Permanent Secretariat, the IFC facilitates and monitors the development of new MARSEC initiatives among ASEAN Navies. The IFC also hosts maritime information sharing portals such as the ASEAN Information Sharing Portal and the Regional Maritime Information eXchange (ReMIX), which facilitates information sharing among ASEAN navies and Western Pacific Naval Symposium members, respectively.
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