The IDF’s tactical start-up innovation Pilot program

"It's a matter of time before Hezbollah has technology like AI."

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
IDF opens new tactical combat innovation and creativity program (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
IDF opens new tactical combat innovation and creativity program
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The Israeli military has opened a new pilot program that will focus on tactical combat innovation and creativity in cooperation with the IDF’s newly created Innovation and Combat Methods Division.
The three-month-long program at the IDF’s Tactical Command College, led by Lt.-Col. Elad Tahori, opened its doors two weeks ago to 16 “handpicked” officers with the rank of captain and major from various units in the military.
Alongside the troops from the Tactical Command College are officers from the IDF’s newly opened Innovation and Combat Methods Division, headed by Brig.-Gen. Eran Niv.
“These are the best of the best,” Tahori said.
The objects of the course, he told The Jerusalem Post, is to develop command capabilities for troops who, he hopes, will become “technological combat officers” in the field.
The Combat and Innovation Methods Division was recently opened as part of the military’s Tnufa (Momentum) multiyear program and will lead plans for developing future weapons systems to meet threats the IDF likely will face in the future.
The guiding principle of the Momentum Plan is taking full advantage of the areas in which the IDF has superiority over its enemies, especially technology, to win any future conflict as quickly as possible.
The military believes it is of utmost importance to build the military for threats it will face some 30 years in the future. Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi built the new multiyear plan accordingly, with new concepts and methods of warfare that have been adapted to the challenges of the urban battlefield saturated with enemy fire.
With the goal of turning the military into a deadly, hi-tech force, a significant proportion of the military’s plans have focused on innovation and advanced technology.
With so many various technological aspects available to focus on, Tahori decided that the pilot program would focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and where it can take the military in future conflicts.
“The next war will be much quicker and much more intense,” he said. “Officers need to be prepared and figure out things beforehand and will have to work much faster than in past conflicts. During war, you don’t have time to think about how to get from one place to another and whether one route gives you a better tactical advantage over the enemy. With AI they will have someone by their side to help them out in real time.”
While there remains a gap between the IDF and its enemies, that gap is closing quickly, and Israel needs to take advantage of the strategic opportunity to stay one step ahead of the enemy by making the necessary changes to the military.
One such change is the IDF’s “Waze of War,” a computer program on which all of the military’s systems will be available to all forces on the battlefield.
Troops on the ground will have access to footage of the areas they are about to enter, taken by drones moments before, allowing them to see potential threats. In addition, commanders will be able to see targets on a map along with the various methods they could use to strike them, including ground forces, artillery, drones and fighter jets.
But just as Israel advances on the technological battlefield, its enemies have not been asleep at the wheel.
“It’s a matter of time before our enemies like Hezbollah have AI,” Tahori said. “Militaries like Russia and China are already investing significant amounts of manpower and funds in that field.”
Once they have it, it can be transferred to enemy states such as Iran, which then can provide Hezbollah with the knowledge and technology.
“We can’t wait until they have AI,” Tahori said. “Unlike militaries, like others who always think about the ethical questions behind the technology, Hezbollah doesn’t, and that even further increases the need to think about solutions.”
Because with AI in the hands of Hezbollah, “it’s a whole new kind of war,” he said.