The Israeli Integration Commandos

The Israeli Integration Commandos

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Integration commandos: Israeli company installs HLS communications systems along borders, airports, and radar stations in Israel and abroad

Photo: GreenWave
Photo: GreenWave

The Dead Sea Enterprises operate huge salt mining barges. Two operators aboard each, working in shifts around the clock, all year long. This is one of the most difficult jobs in the world: Terrible heat, chemicals, stink and extreme physical effort.

Is there a reason the barges couldn’t become unmanned, autonomous and robotic? Greenwave, a Teldor strategic partner specializing in communication systems integration projects, has been facing this challenge. Eyal Harel, CEO: “Our idea was to operate the barges like UAVs – remote control from a command station, without human crew members. We designed, tested, installed cameras along the routes the barges take, turned the salt-mining machinery into an autonomous, remotely controlled tool. The tests took six months to complete and were a success.”

That’s one example of the integration projects Greenwave is in charge of. The company includes five engineers working within the larger Teldor (2,500 workers). It provides integration services for communication systems in Israel and abroad: Coastal defenses, border protection, airports, in addition to projects for Israel Railways, Eilat Port and Dead Sea Enterprises. The principle behind every project is similar: Greenwave cooperates with major defense industries, such as IAI, Elta, Elbit, Rafael and others. The large companies bring the products and systems to the project, while Greenwave is in charge of integrating the various components into a complete system.

Photo: GreenWave
Photo: GreenWave

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

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Take the Caribbean project, completed a month ago: Military radar stations were established in the islands, used by the coast guard to prevent smuggling. The Israeli company installed the wireless communications array connecting the radars to the control stations. Each radar is independent, although the communications array allows operators to monitor the entire system from one central control room.

Company engineers also carried out the planning phase for an undersea fiber-optic cable project, used to connect between surveillance stations.

Photo: GreenWave
Photo: GreenWave

Greenwave, in cooperation with Elbit Systems, installed the camera and communications arrays in Israel Railways intersections. The system is aimed at identifying people or objects on the rails. It alerts everyone involved, from control room operator to train driver, all through cameras connected by optic fibers.

Eyal Harel: “Greenwave is an independent company within Teldor. It was established six years ago and we’re mostly working in HLS, defense and security as integrators of systems and subsystems. We’ve established a coastal defense array in Lithuania which included civil engineering, direction and implementation of communications integration. Another project has been the Macedonia-Kosovo border protection project, which we were unable to complete due reasons unrelated to us. The HLS systems we deal with include cameras, sensors, communications, routers and more. Our job is the design, purchase equipment and install it in the field. We send a representative to oversee every project while the locals are in charge of implementation. That’s how we got the nickname “integration commandos.””

Recently Eyal Harel, who also lectures at the Ariel University, has been cooperating with the Ariel University Department of Engineering, the only one in Israel with an active HLS R&D branch: Unmanned systems and robotics research – radio communications between robotic vehicles and a relatively new field – ground-based sensors.

One important use for these technologies is connecting between underground sensors, or between planned robotic swarms or groups of autonomous vehicles. All these have to be able to communicate with one another, and in order to install the means of communications you need experienced integrators.