Mamram Commander: the IDF will become a ‘lethal, effective’ machine

By HAGAY HACOHEN
Updated: JANUARY 30, 2018 14:26
Mamram Commander Colonel Talya Gazit (photo credit: YESH AVIRA)
Mamram Commander Colonel Talya Gazit
(photo credit: YESH AVIRA)
The IDF is undergoing a powerful paradigm shift, said Mamram Commander Colonel Talya Gazit during the 2018 Yaarot HaCarmel conference, “no longer [will we] connect the various units of the army, rather, we will create one technological space for the entire IDF that will provide a faster, more efficient, comprehensive response,” she said. 
In the past, Mamram, which is the IDF Center of Computing and Information Systems, created specific networks for each unit in the army.
Now the IDF is rapidly reaching a new goal, the fusing together of all the various networks into one hybrid cloud that would serve, and enlist, all sections of the IDF. From the combat troops on the ground flying a drone over a mission to biometric measures that daily monitor who entered Israel at a specific border control point, all the information will be stored and transmitted in one system.
“To attain this goal we view the IDF as a shared community of developers that is based on an open source code used by Mamram, Lotam, and all units of the IDF,” said the Colonel.
Lotam is the IDF unit for enhancing operational technologies.
The usage of the term open source code is limited to army units and soldiers who have the proper training and the security clearances needed, and should not be confused with open source code projects that operate in civic society.
The changes the IDF is going through mean that in two or three years the army is meant to enjoy an operational cloud in which all information will be collected and transmitted to the proper channels in real time.
With so much information passing through the system Artificial Intelligence will be needed to process a lot of it, yet the role of AI will be limited to aiding human decision makers.
CEO of Bynet Computer Communications Alon Ben Tzur commented on the growing gap between technology and human thinking.
“The world of technology is taking giant steps the like of which we never knew”, he said.
According to Ben Tzur, “In a reality in which technology is advancing exponentially and human and organizational thinking remains linear – a gap is created which is hard to fathom.”
The 2018 Yaarot HaCarmel conference is taking place for the fifth consecutive year under the banner of security challenges for the military sector and brings together professionals from the military, technology companies and the intelligence community to discuss cyber defense, combat field AI and operational cloud technology.
While Academics and business leaders are among the speakers, the conference can only be attended by workers in the security sector.