Among the early stage startups in Israel's defense sector is wireless sensing company R2 Wireless. The company was founded three and a half years ago by Dr. Yiftach Richter and has developed a product providing full spectrum defense. This means that a hostile entity can be located on the basis of any of its devices that transmits a signal, whether it is a UAV, a mobile phone, a smart watch, or headphones. R2 Wireless CEO Onn Fenig explains that the system is capable of detecting, locating, and identifying all entities in the area: "Everything in the physical dimension is visible to the eye. But behind the scenes there is a technological system that is responsible for the operation."
A UAV, for example, has a channel that may transmit between the operator and the vehicle. As soon as that transmission is made, R2 knows how to identify the type of transmission, what the object is and the location of the operator. The product has possible civilian uses such as protecting airports, but in the military world it is especially critical due to the proliferation of unmanned means. In the Russia-Ukraine war, UAVs are used in the air, as well as unmanned vehicles on land. Also, the Houthi rebels only recently attacked the merchant ship Tutor with the help of a captured UAV. R2 has the ability to locate the source of danger, as the company's sensor can also sit on ships.
Fenig says that there are other significant threats that R2 can cope with, such as "spoofing," that is, providing a wrong signal to damage GPS navigation capabilities. This is something that is familiar to anyone who has travelled in the past few months in northern Israel, and has seen that, according to Waze or other GPS apps, they are located at Beirut International Airport. The Israeli startup is able to identify a hostile entity carrying out such an action. "The field also includes electronic warfare, spoofing and other actions that we know how to locate and identify, including jamming," Fenig says.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 27, 2024.
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