IDF Has New Big Data Unit

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The role of big data technologies is to cope with the need to process and analyze vast quantities of unorganized data from a wide array of sources and detect the relevant information, manage it and produce insights.

Similarly to the business and governmental sectors, the military too has to constantly develop new technologies. Currently, the IDF J6/C4i Directorate has been working on the establishment of a big-data designated department, as an IDF official told calcalist.co.il. The IDF computing and technology departments have been considering various applications of the innovative analysis of the military giant databases. The main goal is to incorporate the technological capabilities in the operational fields. “The IDF databases contain a large quantity of vital information, we have to both use it effectively and make it accessible not only to technology staff but also to the combating units. For example, the technologies can be used to check parameters regarding weapon systems, help analyze their performance and aggregate crucial information”.

Big data technologies can also be integrated with the IDF recruitment and screening processes. The software can detect parameters in the database that are relevant to the selection and screening procedures. “Thanks to this preliminary analysis we can supply the soldiers with wider support and consider changes in their army posts”, explains the military source. “These measures could bring about a major change and make the recruitment and screening processes more efficient”.

Recently, the IDF has launched a new human resources system that enables a simple and efficient management of human resources through advanced platforms and technologies. The advanced system has been designed to turn the IDF into a center of cutting-edge innovation and technology in all fields: human resources, ordnance, logistics and budget, according to idf.il.

Th Head of the Information and Communications Technology Department, told JNS.org, “The Israel Defense Forces and IAF have a big technological gap to fill when it comes to catching up with the civilian world, and bringing this technology to the military world.” One key area of mutual learning with high-tech firms, he said, is big data. With an ever-growing range of sensors and capabilities feeding the IAF with vast quantities of intelligence, the personnel would be swamped without big data processing and analytical tools.

“The quantity of data coming in is very big. We have to create automation,” the officer said, referring to computing abilities that can receive the big data and analyze it automatically, drawing human operators’ attention to the critical information.