Urim SIGINT Base

 military, communication -to be cleaned / removed, Israel Defense Forces (IDF), intelligence agency

Unit 8200 (יחידה 8200 or shmone matayim in Hebrew) is an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit, responsible for collecting signal intelligence and code decryption. It is also known in military publications as the Central Collection Unit of the Intelligence Corps.

Unit 8200 was established in 1952 using primitive surplus American military equipment. Originally, it was called the 2nd Intelligence Service Unit and then the 515th Intelligence Service Unit. In 1954, the unit moved from Jaffa to its current base at the Glilot junction.Unit 8200 is the largest unit in the Israel Defense Forces, comprising several thousand soldiers. It is comparable in its function to the United States' National Security Agency, except that it is not a separate civilian (i.e. Ministry of Defense) body. Unit 8200 is led by a Brigadier-General whose identity remains classified.

Urim SIGINT Base is the most important signal intelligence-gathering installation operated by Israel's military and is part of Unit 8200. The Urim base is located here on the edge of the Negev desert approximately 30 km from Beersheba. In March 2004, the Commission to investigate the intelligence network following the War in Iraq recommended turning the unit into a civilian National SIGINT Agency, as is in other Western countries, but this proposal was not implemented.

Created decades ago to monitor Intelsat satellites that relay international telephone calls, Urim was expanded to cover maritime communications (Inmarsat), and kept being expanded to intercept the signal communications of ever more communications satellites. Duncan Campbell, an intelligence specialist stated that Urim is "akin to the UK-USA pact's Echelon satellite interception ground stations." The Echelon system was set up by the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as a global network of signal interception stations.

The base has a row of satellite dishes that can intercept phone calls, emails, and other communications from anywhere in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and antennas that can monitor shipping. There are also numerous barracks and operations buildings lined along the road that leads to the base, which is protected by high security gates, fences, and guard dogs. Computers at Urim detect words and phone numbers of interest from intercepted phone calls, e-mails, etc. which are then transferred to Unit 8200's headquarters at Herzliya. At the HQ, the information is translated and submitted as necessary to IDF headquarters or to Israel's spy agencies, such as the Mossad.

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