Israel has entered the quantum communications arms race, revealing its plan to build a national demonstrator for "spooky" communications.

The $2.13 million project for quantum technologies will serve as an academic demonstrator to be built at Hebrew University's Quantum Information Science Center in Jerusalem. The system "paves the way for massive improvements in computational speed and secure communication."

The funding, given by Israel's Ministry of Defense, will use a communication system based on single photons represented by quantum bits or qubits. These allow computer systems to communicate in new approaches by representing 0s and 1s simultaneously, something that is currently not possible in existing communications systems or even supercomputers.

Currently, data encryption is increasingly becoming vulnerable to attacks. Quantum communication system uses the law of physics to secure data transfer, making it hack-proof.

The current quantum commercial solutions have not been assessed yet. But building it locally will allow the government to easily peer-review any resulting product and scientists to perform hack tests on the ground. It will also give the government more assurance instead of depending on foreign imports.

Professor Nadav Katz, Director of the Quantum Information Science Center, said that the project would put Israel in the "leading edge" of research towards a hack-proof communications system.

"This project to build a national quantum communications system will position Israel in the leading edge of research toward ultimately secured communication systems," Katz said.

"With support from the government of Israel and in cooperation with our research partners, this is the first Israeli national project in the emerging field of quantum information technologies."

However, the project will not be available to the public consumer. Instead, it aims to result in a government communication system that cannot be hacked for eavesdropping and spying purposes, as well as to protect data transfers together with Israel's critical infrastructure against other potentially malicious forces, ZDNet reported.