JERUSALEM – The Israeli military is synchronizing capabilities and adapting units as part of its new multi-dimensional plan aiming at a multidimensional battlefield, an IDF official said in a background briefing with Defense News.
The new concept of Israel is intended to prepare the country for these transformations so that it outperforms its peers in terms of field technology. As part of this approach, Israel conducted its first multilayer 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 capability into their platforms.
When Israel talked about multidimensional maneuvers on the battlefield, the official said it was looking at how other armed services, such as the US Marine Corps, use a wide variety of platforms and assets that go beyond the idea of infantry, armor, navy and air force. as separate services. This is the most important change currently taking place at the IDF, the official explained, and as a conscripted military country, it is a challenge to maintain that type of interdisciplinary approach.
Israel’s army consists not only of conscripts but also of a large reserve force, and the IDF wants to train the staff in the same way as they do new recruits using the new doctrine and the latest technology. The officer said the focus now is on the individual soldier, which is changing the warrior’s training and use of technology.
It is not about training troops on how to better conquer a certain hill, the official added, but rather looking at how restrictions and demands on the battlefield have changed, as well as how recruits have changed in terms of their technological experience . One specific limitation is time because soldiers are only required to serve a few years.
Due to the time constraint, Israel uses simulators and new technologies to achieve better results in war games and to apply the findings for the next real conflict. The IDF has deployed many of its brigades over the past year using new simulators and uses ‘Optimizing human performance’ to develop training by understanding neuroplasticity – the method of using tools to understand how the brain works , IDF officials explained during the briefing.
While Israel has the latest platforms in its new Sa’ar 6 warship and F-35 fighter jets, the platforms needed by ground forces for future combat have yet to arrive, and challenges on ground warfare are clear, the official explained. The officer at infantry level said that the army should adapt to the skills of its young recruits.
In other words, while the infantryman is still operating with a rifle, today’s warrior joins the military with experience in smartphones and other technology that predecessors were unfamiliar with. The IDF’s goal is to take the same gun and make that individual the platform himself, so that the war fighter can use the latest technology.
Another challenge facing the IDF is the number of casualties, as seen in the wars during the 1960s and 1970s, according to the briefing. This means that the IDF wants a decisive victory, but without the losses of the 1967 war, which Israel lost about 800 soldiers.
Israel knows that its enemies understand this challenge and that its current adversaries do not face Israel head to head in a conventional conflict. Instead, militants sometimes use underground connections and fight among civilians to strike at Israel’s weakest links.
One solution is Israel’s use of technology to find and expose enemies. It also means that the individual soldier fighting small insurgent units must know that his or her rifle is not the only weapon; there is also instant access to air assets, ships and more. The idea is that the war fighter has achieved all these abilities within, so when the person decides what and how to use, the technology is available with the click of a finger.
But reducing civilian casualties is also a concern for the military. The IDF is concerned with finding enemy forces in dense civilian areas. In response, the military is seeking ammunition with improved precision.
The implementation of these new concepts on the battlefield also means more drones and the use of computerized tablets. The official also said that Israel is specifically focused on AI to enable technology to think and calculate different options that soldiers can utilize during multidimensional maneuvers, as well as rockets that can identify the targets mid-fly more accurately using AI and electro-optics.