Israeli Navy Launches New, Impenetrable Maritime Defense System
“…And he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1)
Israel’s new AquaShield defense system, which locates threats posed to Israel by individual divers and small maritime crafts, is officially up and running.
A senior Israeli Naval officer told Israel Hayom that the latest defense system makes Israel “100 percent impervious to all such attacks.”
“The chances of a diver infiltrating the system are zero. The system is proven and constitutes a sea barrier for Israel,” the naval officer explained.
Since the early days of Operation Protective Edge, when an amphibious attack perpetrated by Hamas naval terrorists succeeded in infiltrating the Israeli coastline via the sea, Israel realized how vulnerable it was from these small in size, but large in impact attacks.
Usually undetectable by your typical naval radar, Israel has been looking for a way to prevent such amphibious attacks from occurring again. The amphibious attack, which was thwarted only by the alertness of a navy spotter who saw the terrorists once they reached the Israeli shoreline, will now be preventable with the new technology.
The senior Naval officer said that the Israeli navy recognized the threat of maritime infiltration even before Operation Protective Edge. However, the incident during the 50-day war expedited matters to bringing a more reliable technological solution to light.
There was, according to the officer, technology in place to prevent a small scale maritime attack, but that technology simply wasn’t good enough. The AquaShield defense system has been hailed as a quantum leap ahead of its predecessor and serves as an impenetrable form of defense.
The AquaShield Diver Detection Sonar system, manufactured by DSIT, makes it possible for the Israeli navy to locate and track individual divers as well as extremely small maritime vehicles, that are often used in such attacks, as well as smuggling operations.
With Aquashield, the navy can now pinpoint and identify underwater, as well as surface divers, from over a kilometer away, giving the navy ample time to prepare a tactical response. The system is hailed as having few false alarms and allowing for a wider area of coverage with fewer systems in place. It also has an automated detection system and can categorize the level of threats posed by targets.
The Israeli navy is currently installing the AquaShield technology across the northern coastline. The safeguarding of Israel’s north is currently of strategic importance with tensions rising along the border with Hezbollah following the recent attacks on both sides of the border. The southern coastal area that borders Gaza already has the technology installed.
