JERUSALEM – The Israel Defense Forces are moving to synchronize capabilities and modify units as part of their new multi-year plan that envisages a multidimensional battlefield, an IDF official said at a briefing with Defense News.
The new concept of Israel aims to prepare the country for these transformations, so that it is ahead of its peers in terms of field technology. As part of this approach, Israel conducted its first multi-layered integrated air defense exercise in December 2020, and local defense companies, such as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, are incorporating more artificial intelligence and automatic target recognition capabilities into their platforms.
When Israel talks about multidimensional maneuvers on the battlefield, the officer said, it looks at how other armed forces, like the US Marine Corps, use a wide range of platforms and means, going beyond the idea of infantry, armored, naval forces. and air as separate services. This is the most significant change currently taking place with the IDF, the official explained, and as conscript-based military personnel, the country finds it difficult to maintain this type of interdisciplinary approach.
The Israeli military is not only formed by recruits, but also by a large reserve force, and the IDF is trying to train these personnel in the same way that it trains new recruits, using the new doctrine and the latest technology. The officer said the focus is now on the individual soldier, modifying the warrior’s training and the use of technology.
It is not a question of training troops to better conquer a particular hill, the official added, but of observing how restrictions and requirements have changed on the battlefield, as well as how recruits have changed in terms of their technological experience. A specific constraint is time, because soldiers serve as recruits only for several years.
Because of time constraints, Israel uses simulators and new technologies to achieve better results in war games and apply these findings to the next real conflict. IDF put many of its brigades in new simulators last year and uses “Human Performance Optimization” to develop training through understanding neuroplasticity – the method of using tools to understand how the brain works, IDF officials explained during the briefing.
Although Israel has state-of-the-art platforms on its new Sa’ar 6 warship and F-35 jets, the platforms needed by ground forces for future fighting are yet to come and the challenges of ground war are different, the official explained. At the infantry level, the officer said, the military must adapt to the skills of its young recruits.
In other words, while the infantryman still goes to battle with a rifle, today’s warrior joins the army with experience in smartphones and other technologies that his predecessors were not familiar with. The aim of the IDF is to take the same sniper and make that individual his own platform, allowing the combatant to use the latest technology directly.
Another challenge faced by the IDF is the counting of victims, such as that observed in wars during the 1960s and 1970s, according to the briefing. This means that the IDF wants a decisive victory, but without the types of losses from the 1967 war, which saw Israel lose some 800 soldiers.
Israel knows that its enemies understand this challenge and that today’s opponents do not face Israel face to face in a conventional conflict. Instead, militants sometimes use underground compounds and fight among civilians, trying to attack Israel’s weakest links.
One solution is Israel’s use of technology to find and expose enemies. It also means that the soldier who fights small insurgent units must know that his rifle is not the only weapon available – there is also instant access to air, ships and more. The idea is that the warrior has all these capabilities at his fingertips, so when that individual makes a decision about what and how to use it, this technology is available at the click of a finger.
But minimizing civilian casualties is also a concern for the military. The IDF faces the discovery of enemy forces in dense civilian areas. In response, the military is looking for more accurate ammunition.
Implementing these new concepts on the battlefield also means more drones and the use of computer tablets, for example. The official also said that Israel is specifically focused on AI to allow the technology to think and calculate different options that soldiers can explore during multidimensional maneuvers, as well as rockets that can more accurately identify targets in mid-flight using AI and electromagnets. optics.