ATOMIC PRECISION PROVEN ON THE NIGHT OF IRAN'S DRONE ATTACK

In April 2024, Iran launched a massive drone strike against Israel. That unprecedented attack was met by a coordinated defense involving hundreds of aircraft and a web of air defense systems in a successful operation that will go down in military and technology history.
Among the companies contributing to this remarkable success was AccuBeat. Based in Jerusalem's Har Hotzvim technology park, it is globally recognized for its atomic clocks and precision timing solutions for military and defensive cyber applications.

"The perfect synchronization of every aerial platform that night was largely due to our clocks," says AccuBeat's vice president of Sales and Marketing, Jacob Kaplan. A former Israel Air Force officer who has held senior positions at Elbit and Orbit, Kaplan well understands the importance of synchronization on the battlefield. In a world where seconds, microseconds and even nanoseconds can determine the fate of everything from electric grids and communication networks to advanced military operations, precision-timing is a critical and strategic resource.

A Garage Startup Turned Global Defense Supplier
AccuBeat's story is one of vision, perseverance and technological innovation. It began with two scientists — electronics engineer Benny Levy and physicist Dr. Avinoam Stern. "Entrepreneurs at heart, they were driven by the desire to do something meaningful in physics and engineering, and they saw the immense potential in atomic clocks," recounts Kaplan. "But they faced the major challenge of convincing the world, especially its militaries, that such precision is no luxury. In the modern world, it's an existential necessity."

In 1993, they created Accubeat. "The early years were tough," says Kaplan. "Try explaining to someone why they need a complex, expensive atomic clock when GPS gives them precise time at no cost, and they don't credit that it can be disrupted or blocked at critical moments."
Levy and Stern believed in the importance of their technology and persisted. From a garage startup in a modest 15-square-meter Jerusalem office, they grew AccuBeat into a world-renowned supplier of atomic clocks and secure timing solutions to global militaries, governments and even space missions.

How Atomic Clocks Work — and Why This Matters
At the core of AccuBeat's technology is the rubidium-based atomic clock, which operates on quantum physics principles. Whereas quartz or even high-end mechanical watches can lose a second every ten days, AccuBeat's atomic clocks rely on the fixed oscillations of rubidium atoms to keep time.

"More precisely, they measure the photon emissions that occur when these atoms transition between energy states," explains Kaplan. "Because the emission frequency is extraordinarily stable, we can achieve phenomenal accuracy. A typical atomic clock loses less than a millionth of a second per day. In some advanced models, the loss is a mere billionth of a second a day, amounting to one second every few thousand years."
This near-absolute precision makes AccuBeat's clocks essential in a huge variety of applications. As the company founders predicted, many are in the defense sector. Kaplan cites military wireless communications as an example.

"Security requires frequency hopping, where the entire network — from soldiers' radios to command systems — switches between frequencies thousands of times per second to avoid detection or jamming," he explains. "Our clocks ensure that every hop is perfectly synchronized across all devices, guarding against jamming or electronic warfare."

Pinpoint Targeting with Perfect Timing
Another area to which AccuBeat makes an important contribution is intelligence and targeting capabilities. "Let's say we want to locate enemy radar," says Kaplan. "We can capture its signal, using four sensors each equipped with an atomic clock. We measure the exact time each sensor receives the signal, and thus pinpoint the radar's location."
This level of precision locates targets to within meters, allowing them to be taken out by a single precision-guided projectile rather than a mass airstrike. It can be used across platforms from fighter jets, drones and ships to missiles and air defense systems.

Cyber Protection for Critical Infrastructure
AccuBeat's integration into global defense has been a gradual process of countless demonstrations, persuasion and proof of capability.A pivotal moment was a decade ago with reports that Iran had hijacked an advanced American drone by spoofing its GPS signal — tricking it into believing it was flying at a different altitude and guiding it to land.
"This kind of event prompted military agencies to look for more resilient, internal timing systems," says Kaplan. AccuBeat had the solution: internal atomic clocks. Relying on internal reference rather than external signals which are susceptible to manipulation, drones, missiles and other platforms can operate almost autonomously in terms of their timing and inertial navigation.

The growing threat of physical-layer cyber attacks (spoofing, jamming GPS signals) has led AccuBeat to new solutions. Among its standout innovations is the TimeFirewall, an advanced system that combines internal atomic clocks with smart algorithms to validate external GPS signals and detect tampering in real time.
"TimeFirewall allows critical systems to validate time signals from sources like GPS, and to disconnect or warn when it detects spoofing," says Kaplan. "It adds a physical cybersecurity layer to fight these threats." AI-based enhancements now in development.

Civilian Applications: From Power Grids to Algorithmic Trading
AccuBeat's reputation extends well beyond Israel. The US Air Force chose the company to develop a rugged atomic clock for its strategic bombers, capable of operating under conditions as extreme as nuclear blasts.
"We knew we'd done a good job when a US Air Force colonel led a delegation to Jerusalem to present us with an official certificate of appreciation," smiles Kaplan. That visit sparked a rapid makeover of the company's small offices, relocating from an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to higher tech space in Har Hotzvim.

AccuBeat's time-servers and atomic clocks are not only highly effective defenses against GPS spoofing, they also play a vital role in the civilian sector. "Everything today is connected, remotely controlled and reliant on time sync," stresses Kaplan. "Imagine if an autonomous vehicle received a malicious signal instructing it to turn into a ravine. The atomic clock in the vehicle's control system can internally verify timing commands and protect against such threats."
Among other civilian uses are:

• Smart electric grids, where microsecond-level synchronization is essential for stability and avoiding cascading failures.
• Finance and banking, where algorithmic (ALGO) trading requires hyper-accurate timestamps.
• Cellular networks, which depend on precise time coordination between base stations to manage vast data streams.

From Har Hotzvim to Deep Space
Nor is AccuBeat's impact limited to earth. Its atomic clocks are part of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system. Its ultra-stable oscillator (USO) for the spacecraft — eight years in development and built to last 16 years in deep space's extreme radiation, vibrations and temperature shifts — has earned the company a place in the European Space Agency's JUICE deep space mission. Its role is helping measure changes in radio waves as they pass through Jupiter's moon atmospheres in the mission's quest for conditions that may support life. NASA scientists describe AccuBeat's clock as "phenomenal," possibly the most stable clock ever sent into deep space — putting both Israel and AccuBeat firmly in the exclusive club of space technology providers.

Precision as a National Mission
More than accolades and growing international orders, Accubeat is driven by a sense of purpose. "We're not simply building clocks," says Kaplan. "At a time of rising global tension, we're actively contributing to national security, safeguarding critical infrastructure and enabling future technologies. Everyone on the Accubeat team understands this isn't just a business. It's a national responsibility. And we're proud to answer that call."

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In collaboration with AccuBeat