Israel will begin testing its civilian alert system that warns of incoming missiles in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv next month.
The system delivers a red alert warning to residents in areas targeted by missiles and will be tested in Ukraine by Israel’s Home Front Command, Israeli news outlet Walla reported.
The system will be connected to Ukraine’s radar monitoring, enabling faster and more accurate alerts to be delivered to mobile phone users, as well as activating air raid sirens only in affected areas.
Then-defence minister Benny Gantz first announced last year that Israel could supply the early warning system, an offer reiterated by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen following his visit to Ukraine in February.
In the intervening period, Israeli and Ukrainian military officials have reportedly met several times in Poland to discuss deployment and adapting the system to a country that is far bigger than Israel and being targeted by more advanced missiles.
The system set for use in Ukraine will feature alerts without interception capabilities, unlike the Iron Dome system in Israel.
Ukraine has previously urged Israel to supply it with the Iron Dome system, but Jerusalem has so far refused, as Israeli leaders seek to avoid overtly antagonising Russia.
This is likely due to Israel’s strategic need to maintain freedom of operations over Syria, where Russian forces largely control the airspace.
The missile alert system will first be deployed in Kyiv, then expand to other Ukrainian cities if deemed a success, with the aim of making it operational over the summer.
The Israeli warning system uses a mix of radar and electro-optic devices to detect rocket, missile, and drone launches, classify the size and the threat they represent, and pinpoint on a map the areas that are in danger.
One Ukrainian resident shows an alert received on November 13th 2022, 2 days before Lviv was hit by Russian missiles (Photo by Gaelle Girbes/Getty Images)
Citizens in those areas receive warnings through sirens, alerts on their phones and messages on TV and radio.
The system has been credited with saving hundreds of lives in Israel amid attacks from terror groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, which have launched thousands of projectiles at Israeli cities over the years.
In recent years the system’s accuracy has been upgraded so that it can limit its alerts to specific areas of large cities.
