In December, Fima, the leading provider of electronic engineering solutions, finished upgrading the surveillance system on the border between Lithuania and Russia at the Bardinai frontier station.

The improved system will ensure that the location of people who illegally cross the frontier will be identified more rapidly and accurately by border guards and will provide much more effective protection of what is one of the EU’s external borders.

Fima installed extra functionality in the control system at Bardinai, enabling system operators to load and edit maps (e. g. mark patrolling routes), expanding event search possibilities, upgrading map management and image view modules and carrying out other work. Fima’s engineers also improved the algorithm that controls video cameras.

“It was a high time to upgrade the system since it has been six years since it was installed. During that time, a similar but upgraded system has also been installed at the frontier stations in Plaškiai and Viešvilė. Having learned from those installations, we put additional functions of the system into Bardinai with the best track record,” said Giedrius Zaicevas, Director of the Security Solutions Department at Fima.

The Bardinai frontier station of the Pagėgiai district and the Tribonys frontier station on the border with Belarus were the first sites to receive modern electronic border protection systems in 2006. The systems included surveillance towers equipped with video cameras and thermal imaging devices, infrared detectors, microwave sensors and other equipment. The system is able to record and analyse events at the border in real time. At the first sign of suspicious movement, it triggers an alarm to border guards on duty. Special equipment ensures that border transgressions can be detected within a two to five kilometre radius of the surveillance sites and cars can be detected within 10 km in any weather conditions.

“The Bardinai frontier station protects a 27.5 km section of the border with Russia which runs alongside the Nemunas River. It was one of the most targeted sections of the Lithuanian border by smugglers. The situation has changed dramatically after its protection was improved and continuous surveillance was ensured. During the system’s first year of operation the number of attempts to cross the border illegally and smuggle goods fell by 90 per cent along this section,” said Giedrius Ranonis, the Commander of the Viešvilė Frontier Station and representative of the State Border Guard Service of the Republic of Lithuania.

The upgrade of the system at the Bardinai frontier station has been co-financed by the EU External Borders Fund.