Ortek selected for Israel's border security monitoring project

Published 27 March 2006

The Senate today begins its debate over legislation to bring illegal immigration into the United States under control, and some of the measures offered call for building of barrier along the U.S.-Mexican border; as this debate rages, Israel is building its own defensive barrier to separate Israel from the West Bank; a company offering innovative border-monitoring devices is contracted to deploy its gear along a portion of this fence

The debate begins in the U.S. Senate today about what to do about illegal immigration into the United States. The House has already approved, and some proposals in the Senate call for, the building of a fence along the 2,000-mileon U.S.-Mexican border as one element of the get-tough approach to the issue of illegal immigration. As this debate goes on, another country — Israel — is continuing to build its own defensive fence, or barrier, to separate itself from the West Bank (Israel has already built such a barrier around the Gaza Strip). Israel’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) last week has selected ORTEK — Homeland Defense, a subsidiary of Haifa, Israel-based Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT) to deploy a “smart” electronic deterrence system along the lengthening barrier (the system will be deployed initially along the Jerusalem detour route). The first phase of the contract is valued at approximately $4.3 million, and the contract includes an option to expand the system, which would bring the contract to a total value of approximately $17 million.

The contract calls for installing Ortek products to detect border crossing attempts in all light weather conditions. The system consists of advanced sensors, an electronic fence, communications, and computerized command and control posts.

Ortek is the homeland security division of the Elbit Systems Group. Ortek develops and manufactures electro-optical systems for surveillance and tracking, optical fiber technology for security, video communication, supervision and control systems, and image processing and smart systems for electronic fences. The company’s solutions are used in peripheral defense of land and sea borders as well as in securing critical infrastructure and strategic facilities. The company says about 60 percent of its sales are to customers outside Israel.