UNIT 8200.The signals intelligence (SIGINT) unit in Military Intelli-
gence(MI). According to foreign sources, its original name was Unit- Then it was named Unit 848, and after the Yom Kippur War, it
was renamed Unit 8200. It was also known as the Central Warning Unit.
After the Six-Day Warin June 1967, MI allocated substantial
budgets to this SIGINT unit to improve its capability to collect infor-
mation, on Syria and Egypt especially. SIGINT centers were estab-
lished for this purpose at Tel Avital in the Golan Heights and on
Mount Hermon. Another important SIGINT center was established at
Um-Hashiba in the Sinai Desert. Unit 848 (still its name on the eve
of the Yom Kippur War) was expected to collect unequivocal evi-
dence and communications intelligence (COMINT) to give early
warning regarding the launching of a war. The unit commander at
that time was Lieutenant Colonel Yoel Ben-Porat, who eventually
retired from the IDF with the rank of brigadier general.
In the days before the Yom Kippur War, this unit by means of SIG-
INT collected information that the Syrians were bringing bridging
tanks up toward the front, deploying Sukhoi-17 aircraft at frontline
unprotected airfields, and moving the Syrian Army’s 47th Division
from Homs to the Golan Heights. The information collected by this
unit was outstanding regarding the volume of ammunition being taken
to the Golan Heights front. Twenty hours before the launch of the war,
the unit collected evidence on the ongoing evacuation process, due to
the Kremlin’s awareness of Egypt’s and Syria’s intentions of going to
war against Israel. The fall of the Hermon strongpoint brought about
the loss of this essential SIGINT means in the Syrian theater.
Unit 848 also had deployed special collection meansin Egypt, but
the director of MI, Major General Eliyahu (Eli) Zeira, decided not
to activate them. As a result, concrete early warning evidence of last-
minute Egyptian preparations for war was missed. Zeira’s decision
was based on his belief in the Conceptthat Egypt had no intention to
start a war and his desire to keep the SIGINT capabilities secret.
By and large, the unit functioned efficiently during the Yom Kippur
War. Since then, the unit’s capability has improved substantially, and
it is now considered one of the best SIGINT agencies in the world.
UNIT 9200.See MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.URANIUM SHIP OPERATION.See PLUMBAT OPERATION.URANIUM SHIP OPERATION• 29906-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 299