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Itongadol.- The IDF has decided to invest some 100 million shekels ($25.4 million) in developing a cellular phone-based alert system for civilians that will help guide people to safe areas during a missile attack. The system will be developed for use by the Home Front Command and is expected to improve the army\’s ability to direct the public in times of emergency and wartime.
The goal of the new system, which has already entered the developmental stage, is to allow the Home Front Command to alert people in a specific area under attack, so as not to "paralyze" an entire city or population unnecessarily.
An IDF official said development of the system and improving the army\’s overall alert apparatus were an essential necessity, born from the lessons learned during Operation Protective Edge, and because it is believed Israel will come under a more massive missile attack in future wars.
The new alert system, which appears likely to become operational within the next year and a half to two years, will be predicated on determining the precise location where a missile will hit. Certain aspects of the system, incidentally, were already tried during the fighting in Gaza last summer, when the Home Front Command divided the country into over 200 missile impact areas.
Meanwhile, the IDF has finished developing the iOref application, which provides alerts based on where the user is located. The application allows the user to select three areas for which to receive continuous alerts. It joins an already existing "push" service that notifies smartphone users if they are in an area where a missile alert siren has been activated.