How to Protect Exclusive Economic Zones

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

How do you defend the exclusive economic zone? Satellites and balloons, ships and aircraft, drones, sensors and radars – all to keep a country’s maritime assets safe.

Exclusive economic zones, or EEZ, are a relatively new term. They’re areas 200 miles away from a country’s shores, as defined by a U.N international treaty signed in 1982, based on naval laws that grant rights to look for and exploit maritime resources.

This is a huge area. Territorial waters, for example, stretch only 12 miles away from the shore. Taking into account Brazil’s long shores, for example, the country’s EEZ covers tens of thousands of square kilometers. In this area every country manages commercial naval traffic and natural resources, especially oil and natural gas deposits.

A country has to protect the entire area. Israel added a clause to the EEZ treaty, stating that Israel’s EEZ has to be protected, especially the natural gas deposits discovered in the area.

“It’s true that oil and natural gas deposits aren’t new,” said Amnon Sofrin, HLS Coordinator at IAI’s Elta division, “but the threats have changed, evolved, in addition to having to deal with conflicts between countries that share sea borders. For example, look at the statements made in Lebanon, claiming that the Leviathan natural gas deposit is in its territory.”

Sofrin will review the defenses for assets in exclusive economic zones in a lecture given at the Perimeter and Offshore Security Conference, organized by iHLS, taking place at the Ya’akov Agam Museum in Rishon Lezion on May 14. The hundreds of conference guests will attend lectures given by Israeli experts, covering shore and port defenses in addition to perimeter security.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Sofrin gave a special interview to iHLS: “Defending such a wide area of water requires adopting new security models, different than those we use for defending areas on land, ports and waterways. You have to constantly monitor EEZs in order to gain comprehensive situational awareness. The unique thing about this is that the monitoring is carried out through many means of surveillance working together, the more the better: Aircraft, patrol ships, manned and unmanned vehicles, satellites, surveillance balloons, listening devices, radars, sensors and more.”

“The security model for EEZs is based on remote monitoring, electronic tracking of wireless traffic and physical tracking of vessels on the surface. When a threat is detected, the defense system has to be able to alert, locate and call in a response team. Patrols have to be carried out on the surface and in the air simultaneously, by ships and drones. All these together have to be able to provide decision makers with comprehensive situational awareness. This protection doesn’t just cover oil fields and natural gas deposits, it also includes fishing areas, underwater natural resources, commerce and every other state asset that the country wants to protect.”

Sofrin explained that the newest developments in EEZ security are the terrorist threat to maritime assets and threats caused by conflicts between countries. In the South China Sea there are territorial conflicts between China, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, involving several islands. Every conflict leaves the country no choice but to protect its assets to the best of its ability.

Israel Aerospace Industries, including Elta, offers clients a wide variety of EEZ security solutions. Amnon Sofrim: “We offer everything, complete packages of protective measures: Depth and long-range monitoring systems, satellites, naval patrol radars on surface vessels, on drones and naval patrol aircraft. I can provide a radar mounted on a balloon (200 km range), shore systems, shore radars (60 km range) or monitoring equipment installed aboard drilling rigs, aircraft or drones.”

There’s a constantly growing need for sophisticated protective measures for exclusive economic zones. Everyone with assets in their EEZ will look for advanced security measures. When you look at an offshore drilling rig from a distance, dozens of people on board a massive, flame-spewing monster isolated at sea, you realize how vulnerable it is. Israeli rigs are already kept safe behind layers of security measures, including ships, manned and unmanned vehicles, systems both hidden and visible, which protect them from evildoers.