New, Advanced Border Protection Technology for the IDF

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After 7 years of development and extensive testing, the IDF officially declared Magna system as a lead technology for border protection and critical cross-point protection.

The IDF has operational needs for controlling the borders and must be prepared for a variety of combat scenarios. Therefore, the IDF puts a lot of effort and resources in the testing of advanced technologies which help control and manage the border lines.

Up to now, the technology for border protection (for short ranges – up to 2 KM) was based on short range radars, electronic fences and VMD (Video Motion Detection) characterized with a high rate of false-alarms and limited detection, especially in difficult terrain such as dense vegetation, sand storms, etc.

Magna, in collaboration with the IDF’s technological unit, developed a passive electro-optic radar that combines a pair of thermal cameras and/or CCD cameras that cover the detection zone. With the stereoscopic vision Magna achieves unique paremeters using 3D capabilities (combining distance, height from the ground, velocity and more). Those parameters are the basis of the sophisticated software, that filters any kind of disturbance and at the same time doesn’t affect detection ratios.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The extraordinary testing results (based on thousands of penetration attempts) show over 99% detection reliability while keeping a minimal false-alarm rate, up to a single false reading per 24 hours (including positive and negative targets).

Due to the impressive results the IDF officially approved Magna as a border protection system.

Magna’s system has two main configurations. The first is a fence configuration that provides a detection strip all along the fence. The second is for critical cross-points, which the system uses as a monitoring system for short ranges in the critical crossing line.

In addition, following an operational test on the shoreline, Magna’s system was defined as an operational system for the defence of shorelines and detection of intruders in maritime regions.

During the 7 years of development the system was tested in a variety of operational scenarios, in combination with different geographical terrains and severe weather patterns (fog, sand storms, etc.) and proved successful in all of these conditions.

The IDF currently has operating Magna systems on all Israeli borders and in maritime-land interfaces as well.