Last week's advanced training for senior commanders focused on specific threats facing Israel and methods of handling them
Date: 02/10/2012, 2:59 PM
Author: Florit Shoihet
Last week, the Steel Formation held a one-day advanced training program for senior commanders, designed to deepen their understanding of important intelligence information. The program, which was designated for commanders of battalions and larger units, provided participants with important information regarding anticipated threats and methods of handling them. The goal: to form a shared language throughout the Formation and to improve the commanders' understanding of the threats facing Israel.
"Our goal is to study the other side of the enemy and to deepen professional knowledge in the arena in which we operate," a senior source within the Steel Formation explained to the IDF Website.
"We are breaking down the threats and analyzing the threats in such a way that will allow us to suit the Formation's methods of warfare to [each] threat. In our analysis of the enemy, we are breaking down the various parts of their systems, the corresponding challenges, and the ways of coping with these systems."
The informational component of the training was followed by an exercise applying important intelligence in practice. In the latter activity, the commanders were grouped heterogeneously, with each group consisting of representatives of the Formation's various forces, including infantry, armored, engineering, and artillery forces. Each group was assigned to a particular sector, for which it had to decide how to handle relevant threats.
"The battalion commanders from all units build a heterogeneous group that includes all of the components of the land forces, enabling us to take more risks and to realize the IDF's strength in all of its glory, and to implement the plans manifested through fire and maneuvers," the source added.
These groups also held conversations between field commanders and the authors of the combat doctrine of the Ground Forces.
The training program reflected the IDF's trend of strengthening the operational intelligence background of officers in the field. "As a rule, the commanders demonstrate a very high level of knowledge, with the understanding that today intelligence is very important," said the source. "Altogether, we understand the other side well. Today we are ensuring that the officers will be familiar with the subject of intelligence at all levels, and the survey will trickle down as low as possible [among the ranks] so that the forces will be prepared for war."
The source added that recent and ongoing changes in the Middle East do not significantly change the IDF's preparations for intelligence challenges. "Generally, intelligence is very dynamic, particularly regarding the irregular armies like Hezbollah and Hamas," the source added. "There is a sort of pursuit, and the enemy is trying to change. We as a division are required to stay updated at all times, despite the changes."
Representatives of the Air Force and, at times, the Navy were also involved in the training program.