IDF set to test new tunnel detection system
Sensor-based system is revamped version of two previously unsuccessful technologies; could be used on Gaza border a year after trials.
The IDF will soon to carry out operational tests of a revamped sensor system to identify new tunnels, hoping to deploy it – depending on the results – along the 64 kilometers of the Israel-Gaza border.
As reported by Ynet last month, the defense establishment has sponsored the technology for more than a year and a half, and it was recently successfully tested in sewage tunnels in the Tel Aviv region.
According to a senior IDF officer, the system costs between half a billion to two billion shekels, and it will take a year in total to implement - subject to the ongoing success of the operational trials.
The senior officer said Monday that the system, which is based on sensitive sensors to detect underground excavation and underground cavities, has successfully passed its laboratory tests.
He said the system actually comprises two parallel technologies that actually failed in development in 2005, but, with a series of improvements, has matured into a new system with a better likelihood of meeting the challenge of locating the tunnels.
According to the officer, the IDF will recommend a dual approach to the tunnels –combining the sensor system with a new physical infrastructure will help prevent underground infiltration. The cost of the project, he says, "will be reasonable."
