IDF Constructing a Smart System at Northern Border

3/2/2013 IsraelDefense

The Multi-Sensor System (MSS) will significantly reduce the personnel required to monitor the Golan Heights border area

The IDF has recently started construction of 'the world's smartest’ border obstacle system, opposite Syria. The project is carried out by Elbit Systems at an estimated cost of a quarter of a billion NIS (more than $60 million).

The decision to construct the new border obstacle system on the Golan Heights front was made during 2011. The decision came in the wake of the weakening of Syria's central regime and growing apprehension that Global Jihad elements will establish a hold on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights following the collapse of Bashar Assad's government.The Golan Heights border was considered Israel's most tranquil border since 1974 (with perfect silence prevailing in the area following the end of the Yom-Kippur War). Concerns regarding the implications of the Syrian civil war on the security situation along the Golan Heights intensified when hundreds of Syrians attempted to cross the fence at the border with Israel during the 'Nakba Day' on May 15, 2011.

In 2012, a smart fence system was established along a nine-kilometer stretch of the Golan Heights border and old minefields in the area were restored. In 2013, a state-of-the-art defensive system will be constructed along 60 kilometers of the border line. This will be the world's first border defense system based on data fusion. A Multi Sensor System will transmit a massive amount of data to a central command post. There, the raw data will be processed by computers, among other things, on the basis of the user's familiarity with the routine activity along the border, and the ability to identify any suspicious indication that digresses from the established routine.

The new system will end the need for employing dozens of field intelligence operators as observers. The personnel required in order to operate the MSS will be much smaller than the personnel complements employed along other borders, and surveillance data should be obtained from the field even under severe weather conditions, 24 hours a day.

**

The full article and much more can be found in IsraelDefense issue #12 being published in the coming days.