Aviation Week & Space Technology - 30 March-12 April 2015

David Eshel Tel Aviv

Future Shock and Awe

Israel adapts operational tactics

to increase lethality

I

n his fi nal months as head of the Is-

rael Defense Forces (IDF), Lt. Gen.

Benny Gantz laid the foundation for

the country’s military vision over the

next decade. The “IDF 2025” study ad-

dressed all theaters of warfare—air, na-

val and land—and diverse operations:

urban and subterranean; unmanned

systems; command, control and com-

munications; training; logistics; home-

land defense, and legal aspects.

“We have to adapt our operating con-

cepts, equip our soldiers with the right

technology and ensure we provide our

warfighters the dependable support

they require,” Gantz says. “To be ready

in 2025 we must change today.”

One enabler of Gantz’s vision is C^4 I

(command, control, communications,

computers and intelligence). The IDF

has undergone a transformation in

this area since the mid-2000s with the

Digital Army Program implemented at

division level and below. Changes have

been made to the system, which con-

tributed to greater ef ciency in ground

combat and better integration of joint

air, land and sea operations, as demon-

strated in Operation Protective Edge

last summer in Gaza.

But “jointness” and close coop-

eration were not endorsed with a

proportional transformation at high

command levels, or by air and naval

branches. As a result, there was a

complex array of data displays driven

by disparate, partly compatible infor-

mation systems, along with “spaghetti

bowls” of connections at command

centers, resulting in systems with criti-

cal information that were dif cult to

operate and prone to errors. The IDF

plans to streamline this maze by inte-

grating feeds from many systems into

a unifi ed situational display.

“It is much like the browser you use

to surf the Internet,” says Brig. Gen.

Eyal Zelinger, chief signals of cer and

head of the C^4 I directorate. “We want

every branch—air, land and sea—to

gain access to the information and

intelligence data available at general

headquarters. We plan to bring those

capabilities to commanders in the fi eld,

to enable brigades and battalions to

seamlessly connect to air support or

vessels at sea.”

Joint command and control will be

the foundation of a distributed-fires

concept envisioned by IDF 2025. This

will employ a fi re-support tender auto-

matically published by the user—e.g.,

a combat team, platoon commander

or squad leader engaging the enemy.

The tender will include only necessary

information such as target location, re-

quired ef ect and time. It will thus be

compact and easy to distribute.

Additional data will be extracted

from information systems available

to relevant participants such as the

position of friendly forces, presence of

non-combatants at a target, collateral

damage risk, safety zones of weapons

and legal constraints. All of this will be

considered and processed in parallel

by elements responsible for assigned

fires, thus allowing a forward com-

mander and fi re unit to focus on engag-

ing the enemy quickly and ef ectively.

The bids will provide a commander

with access to ef ective fi res from all

available services—rockets, artillery,

air support, tanks and long-range pre-

cision-guided missiles, among others.

“The response time for such fires

will be seconds rather than hours,”

Zellinger predicts, adding that this

capability will require more experi-

ence and acceptance among combat

commanders.

“In the past, land forces’ command-

ers had to understand the battle-

ground in which they were fi ghting,” he

explains. “Now and in the future, they

will have to understand battlespace, in-

cluding aspects of air and naval opera-

tions, precision strike, and interpreta-

tion of aerial intelligence. To succeed,

this process must rely on foolproof

communications that are immune to

interruptions, delays or cyberattacks.”

The C^4 I directorate is responsible for

communications integrity.

Other aspects include fielding

sensor-rich and networked weapon

systems that provide integrated, pre-

cision fi res. While armor and artillery

are being equipped with sophisticated

sensors and information systems to

support this goal, dismounted units

also will tap these capabilities.

By year-end the IDF expects to re-

ceive the fi rst batch of precision rounds

developed by Israel Military Industries

(IMI) for Keshet 120-mm mortars. A

similar transformation is expected

when the artillery corps fi elds the Silver

Bullet precision-guidance kit for weap-

ons developed by BAE Systems’ Israeli

subsidiary Rokar. Augmenting the leg-

acy of multiple-launch rocket systems

deployed with the artillery corps, the

IDF is fi elding Accular precision-guided

rockets. The fi rst units were delivered

by IMI last November. These rockets

provide high-precision strike, enabling

a nearly simultaneous engagement of

multiple targets.

To be effective, precision-guided

weapons require accurate targeting

and constantly updated situational

assessments. This will be fulfi lled by

distributed networked sensors, oper-

ated by combat units and deployed

by higher commands. Monitoring the

battlefi eld in dif erent domains, sen-

sors will detect hostile activity, locate

and acquire targets, and alert friendly

forces of imminent attacks, while pro-

viding combat forces and fi re-support

DEFENSE ANALYSIS

The Trophy APS proved ef ective

at protecting the Merkava Mk4

main battle tank during Operation

Protective Edge in Gaza.

ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES

DTI8 MARCH 30 -APRIL 12, 2015 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL AviationWeek.com/dti