Israel Matzav

Now it has to be tested in the field

The IDF has successfully tested in the laboratory a system for detecting underground terror tunnels. The system must now be field tested. The IDF hopes to install it on the Gaza border within a year.

A system designed to detect infiltration tunnels proved successful in laboratory tests for the first time ever and is now being tested in the field, a senior IDF officer said Monday.

If the field test proves successful, the system can be deployed around the Gaza Strip within approximately one year, the officer added.

The system will cost from NIS 1.5 billlion to NIS 2.5 billion to deploy.

Arutz Sheva adds:

The senior officer said that the IDF had received about 700 offers for anti-tunnel systems, and chose two.

The senior officer also spoke about the Iron Dome system and confirmed that the system worked well during Operation Protective Edge. However, he warned, “we cannot rest on our laurels: in the next campaign, the terrorists will try to improve the range of the missiles, the altitude of their trajectory and the amount of missiles launched each time. Therefore, the system must constantly update itself, and we are operating accordingly.

The Trophy defense system that protects armored vehicles from anti-tank missiles also worked efficiently in the war, the officer said. Another 3 billion shekels are required to provide protection for all of the vehicles. “Money was never the issue,” he stressed, “only providing the proper means [for protection].”

Various media reports over the years have described possible solutions as including sensors that would detect tunnels as they were being dug, massive trench digging contraptions that could create a deep protective trench around Gaza, and robots that could dig their way into tunnels and blow them up.

Whatever we install around Gaza should also be installed around our northern border with Lebanon and probably the Syrian border as well. The borders with Jordan and Egypt seem like less of a priority right now. 

Labels: IDF, Iron Dome, Israeli high tech, Operation Protective Edge, terror tunnels, Trophy system

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:39 PM