home Security Counter Terror IDF’s Electronic Warfare Battalion: the Enemy’s Headache

IDF’s Electronic Warfare Battalion: the Enemy’s Headache

Dec 30, 2014

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Israel Defense Forces’ Electronic Warfare (EW) soldiers and officers are deployed along the nation’s borders. Among their missions: monitoring radical terrorist organizations in Syria, such as ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra. The unit is tasked with disrupting enemy communications systems as well as “planting” info and messages Israel wants to disseminate.

The Computer Service Directorate’s website recently unveiled unprecedented details concerning the battalion, which is one of the most top secret, prestigious and sought after outfits in the entire IDF. “We are capable of operating at sea, in the air and o land, as well as behind enemy lines,” says Battalion Commander Lt. Colonel Arik. “We are able to reach anywhere, so we constitute a real headache for the enemy.”

Last July and August, During “Operation Protective Edge”, the battalion was position along the Gaza Strip, engaged in many and diverse life-saving missions. In some instances, Hamas fighters laid explosive charges in order to target Israeli patrols along the border fence or inside the Strip. But the charges failed to detonate thanks to the EW battalion’s actions.

The force trains in disrupting enemy communications and electronics systems, those used primarily by terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The IDF’s EW battalion are capable of debilitating command and control, take over their various media (e.g., radio and TV), and ’plant’ Israeli message designed to cripple the enemy’s morale. The unit’s mission is not merely deterrent, but, as the unit commanders underscore, to undermine the enemy’s operational capabilities along with its very motivation to fight.

The battalion is under the direct command of the IDF General Staff, so during “Operation Protective Edge”, it received a bank of targets in order to disrupt Hamas’s operational capabilities. During “Operation Pillar of Defense”, about three years ago, the EW battalion took over the organizations’ entire network, all the radio and TV channels, and “planted” IDF messages.

According to the unit commander, they were highly successful in taking the enemy comm systems out entirely, causing great confusion during both operations.

The battalion commander specifies the unit’s missions:

Disrupting cellular call between terrorists and their commanders
Foiling explosive charges and terrorist attacks against soldiers
Causing turmoil in the enemy’s ranks during the campaign
Disrupting electronics and communications systems and debilitating them altogether

The battalion commander further explained that the unit is capable of rapid deployment in the field, as it does not carry a great deal of logistics and is able to operate independently in battle and move with the advancing forces.

In recent years, the EW battalion is unveiling some of its capabilities at meetings with high school students, ahead of their joining the IDF, in order to attract the best and the brightest. Those who are hand-picked with great care undergo highly a selective cherry-picking process complete with physicals, technological aptitude tests, examinations of their ability to operate, under extreme pressure and high degree of motivation. The unit has some 200 candidate each year, among whom only 15 to 20 are eventually accepted. Arab speakers have an edge, as they feature the ability to “listen in” on enemy transmissions. The soldiers’ professional training lasts six months, including highly advanced electronics systems.

Lt. Colonel Arik: “we train the soldiers not to disparage the enemy, which receives know-how from Iran. Our task is to always be ahead of this chess-like game, between EW soldiers and officers and their adversaries.”