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A year has passed since IDF’s Ground Arm and its Technology and Logistics Arms have merged, and the change is visible and very well felt. Now, the revolution goes up a notch, and a month from now will see more and more new technologies and vehicles start their service IDF’s infantry brigades. Also, a new brigade will form, named “Gideon”, that will integrate combat engineering, armor and infantry forces together for the first time.
According to idf.co.il, starting June 2018, IDF Golani brigade infantrymen and the armor and combat engineering men of the 7th armored brigade will cooperate and form Gideon brigade, that will integrate the diverse forces.
Also, many new weapons will enter service within the infantry brigades: new surveillance system called “smart trigger” will engage live fire according to information that it will gather, and “dagger scope” that enters the Givati infantry brigade this month, will have lock-on-target abilities and will make the shot more accurate.
Ground Arm also presents the “Eitan” – an all-new APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) that will be used by the Nahal infantry brigade to maneuver deep beyond enemy lines, and a large drone that will be used by company commanders, and will have longer flight times and will be able to operate on longer distances. That way it will provide company commanders with better reconnaissance abilities.
Moreover, new vehicles are about to become operational: the first is the “Dragonfly”, a cargo drone that will be able to carry 500 kilograms of cargo up to 50 kilometers in distance, and includes a special compartment to carry an injured soldier. Second is the “Green Yasuron”, an unmanned helicopter that will be able to carry loads of up to 80 kilograms on low altitudes, and the third is the “Tzur”, a multi-role drone that has excellent day and night-vision sensors, an hour-long flight range and can be operated in many battle situations.
3 new and large training facilities are being built, and the biggest among them – “Snir Facility” – will be opened next year and used by said Gideon brigade to train in diversified forces battles, and will include “streets” that can accomodate APCs.
“In the next war our maneuver will begin earlier, and it will be faster and broader”, concludes Major General Kobi Barak, Commander of IDF’s Ground Arm, “we are already trained, willing, and ready for that mission. That said, at each phase we are weighing our operational solution against the enemy’s changing environment and our own operational challenges. We do so in whole perceptions and in training, that also includes merging the Ground Arm with the Technologies and Logistics Arm”.
