Revealed: How the IDF will transform following the Gaza war

Among other things, the IDF is examining the possibility of establishing a new engineering battalion, bolstering the unmanned aerial vehicle array in the air force, strengthening the Armored Corps by adding regular infantry battalions to replace reserve battalions, establishing several light infantry battalions, opening two additional regular Iron Dome batteries, and more.

By Lilach Shoval, ISRAEL HAYOM                                13 March 2024

IDF forces in the Gaza Strip on February 24, 2024 | Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

Although has only just begun to investigate the lapses and lessons of the Gaza war, it is already working on creating new units that will meet the new security needs following the October 7 massacre, Israel Hayom has learned.

Among other things, the IDF is examining the possibility of establishing a new engineering battalion, bolstering the unmanned aerial vehicle array in the air force, strengthening the Armored Corps by adding regular infantry battalions to replace reserve battalions, establishing several light infantry battalions, opening two additional regular Iron Dome batteries, and more.

We should emphasize that at this stage these are staff works and ideas, and decisions regarding the establishment of the new units have not yet been made. The decisions on this matter also depend on the multi-year plan that will be derived, among other things, from the investigations currently being conducted, as well as on the human resources that will be made available to the army and the budget approved for it.

Nevertheless, given the operational and security situation in the north, the chief of staff has already approved one decision: to resurrect the Hermon Regional Brigade (810) which had been disbanded a few years ago for budgetary reasons and merged with the Golan Regional Brigade (474).

The war in Gaza proved, among other things, the need to expand the Armored Corps – which has been significantly reduced over the last two decades. Among other things, a few years ago it was decided that one battalion in each regular armored brigade would be based on reserve soldiers, and now the army wants to restore the situation to its previous state, and use the reserve soldiers currently assigned to the regular brigades to establish new reserve armored formations.

Also, given the significant workload on combat engineers, the army wants to establish an additional engineering battalion, establish several more light infantry battalions – similar to the mixed-gender battalions.

There is also no dispute over the need to establish additional regular Iron Dome batteries, as well as the need to expand the unmanned aerial vehicle array. The IDF has already expanded the UAV array, including establishing a new squadron at the Palmachim Air Force Base.

In addition, the IDF plans to change the operational employment format of the various units and reduce the rotations between them, so that a battalion will have responsibility for a designated area for a longer period, and the soldiers’ leaves will be in rotations within the battalion itself. As a result, the army intends to increase the number of active members within the battalions and companies in order to allow the soldiers to go on home leave, as well as for training and more.

And if that’s not enough, there are also quite a few additional bodies in the IDF that will need to grow in light of the lessons of the war, including bolstering units in the Intelligence Corps and establishing new organizations in the Military Intelligence Directorate, strengthening the combat support array and even expanding staff bodies, such as the casualty department which will now have to deal with many more casualties and bereaved families.

The IDF eyes thousands more conscripted soldiers, as well as thousands of additional career officers. At the moment, out of about 7,000 career officer positions the army requested, the treasury approved about 2,500 additional positions for the IDF, and another 1,500 in a slightly different constellation.

As for conscripted soldiers, the situation is a bit more complicated, as the security establishment has already announced that they want to extend the mandatory service of men from 32 to 36 months. However, as is well known, despite the operational need that the IDF defines as “urgent”, the legislation is being delayed due to disagreements in the political system over Haredi draft and other political issues.

The army’s interim solution is to automatically issue emergency notices to combatants completing 32 months of service so that they extend their actual service to 36 months through these orders. This was done for soldiers who were supposed to be discharged in November and is currently happening with soldiers due to be discharged in March.