Courtesy photo The Integrated Fixed Towers created by Elbit Systems of America provide 24/7 surveillance with radars that detect motion and cameras that can provide border agents with images so they can identify activity. Merrimack’s Elbit Systems of America plays a key role in engineering the technology for these towers.

NASHUA – Security at the country’s borders has been an ongoing discussion for years, but recent technology is helping make strides in helping to keep the border safe.

Merrimack’s Elbit Systems of America plays a fundamental role in engineering this technology. In February 2014, the company was contracted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for $145 million to create Integrated Fixed Towers for the southern border.

These towers provide 24/7 surveillance with radars that detect motion and cameras that can provide border agents with images so they can identify if there is something near the border. Elbit spokesman Ken Roberts said this could be a person, an animal, a vehicle, or many other things. This technology, Roberts said, gives border patrol agents situational awareness.

The towers were first deployed in August 2015 in the Nogales Area of Responsibility on the southern Arizona border.

Elbit has produced 55 such towers and is looking to expand. The technology is now being used in four areas of responsibility, all in Arizona. Roberts said officials are looking to expand to along the Texas, New Mexico and California borders.The 55 towers cover 200 linear miles, but give about 2,500 square miles of 24/ 7 surveillance. The towers are equipped with advanced radars, cameras, and sensors, which rapidly transmit data to a command center.

“At Elbit Systems of America, we provide innovative solutions that protect and stabilize. It gives border patrol agents awareness of what they are responding to. They know how many people may be in a group, they know if they are carrying weapons, it gives them an awareness so they can respond accordingly,” Roberts said.

He added that the technology of each tower frees up five to seven officers to do other things who would otherwise just be watching the borders. The height of the towers goes as tall as 120 feet.

Elbit states on its Next Generation section of its website that from vast and rugged terrain, to dense urban environments, agents are challenged to patrol borders.

Aside from increasing protection along the borders and for border patrol agents, Roberts said the towers are also extremely cost-effective.

“The cost of the fielded IFT system is 75 percent less than what U.S. Customs and Border Patrol thought they would have to pay,” Roberts said.

This technology has received positive feedback from many border patrol agents and even received recognition from the U.S. Border Patrol chief for the contribution to situational awareness and agent safety.

In 2016, Elbit was named the winner of the Most Notable Border Security Program Award by Government Security News for the Integrated Fixed Tower deployment to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.