Israel's military technology industry
The Middle East is one of the hottest spots on our planet, and the State of Israel is one of the main centers of tension in the region and, willy-nilly, participates to one degree or another in most regional conflicts.
This forces the Jewish nation state from the moment of its inception to constantly improve the quality of both its military power structures and their technical equipment. And if in the first two decades of its existence, Israel, one might say, by and large did not have its own military-industrial industry, then since the 1970s this area of the Israeli economy has been constantly developing and expanding. At present, the "Jewish national hearth" is capable of independently producing completely different military equipment, from tanks to samples of various high-precision weapons.
A very significant share of orders for the military-industrial complex of modern Israel are various contracts with foreign countries, primarily related to the deep modernization of outdated military equipment. Control over these contracts is under the jurisdiction of the so-called SIBAT - the Office for Military-Technological Cooperation with Foreign Countries.
It is also worth noting that Israel's military industry is very much export-oriented and, one might say, tied to it (according to some sources, the share of export contracts is up to 80% of the volume of military-technological production of the Jewish state).
The production of equipment that goes into service directly with the Israeli army itself, and the programs for its modernization are in charge of MANKHAR - the Office for the Coordination of the Military Industry, which is also engaged in the import of military equipment into this country.
These two organizations constitute, as it were, two parts of the production segment of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which is also responsible for military and dual-use research projects.
In general, Israel, such a small state both territorially and numerically, is one of the leading players in the world arms market. So, in the period from 2013 to 2017. this country has risen from 10th to 8th place in the ranking of the world's leading exporters of weapons and military systems, which in itself is an amazing result.
According to the Stockholm International Research University, Israel occupies about 2.9% of the world arms and military equipment market, not so far from, say, a country like France (whose share has decreased in recent years and is 6.7%).
It is also common knowledge that Israel's multifaceted strategic military cooperation in the United States is fundamental to Israel's security. Since the 1950s, Israel has had the priority status of America's key military ally outside NATO, making Washington the No. 1 supplier of weapons and military technology to the Jewish nation-state.
Note that within the framework of only financial and economic assistance in the military sphere from the United States, numerically very small Israel receives huge sums. So, if in the 2000s it was on average 2.5 billion.$ per year, then for the period 2019-2028, according to the funding program, the United States will provide Israel with $ 3.8 billion annually, and this is only through military cooperation.
Of course, it should be noted that only a quarter of the received tranches Jerusalem can spend at its discretion; Washington provides 3/4 of the funds in the form of subsidies for the purchase of exclusively American military equipment.
But one way or another, it is thanks to military and financial and economic assistance from the United States that the Jewish state has been spared a significant part of military and scientific and technical expenses, which at the same time largely allows the Israeli military-industrial complex to work for export, attracting revenues to the country, and not becoming exorbitant a burden to the national economy.
Of course, a very important role in Israel's military security is played by the free and virtually free import of the latest military technology from the United States. In particular, it was thanks to this cooperation program that Israel received back in 2016 several F-35s, the famous American combat aircraft of the 5th generation, of which at least 2 squadrons are currently formed (Arab media report data on a different number of aircraft of this type delivered to Hel haavir - from 19 to 28).
However, despite the scale and depth of military-economic interaction between the United States and Israel, it should be noted that there is no direct agreement between them on mutual military assistance in the event of an attack. This is undoubtedly determined by the geopolitical need for both sides to preserve their "free hand".
Israel Armed Forces by type of service
The Israeli armed forces appeared, one might say, long before the official formation of this state, in the form of militarized Jewish extremist organizations (Haganah, Etzel, etc.) that existed underground in the territory of the British mandated Palestine.
Actually, by 1948, the young Jewish state already had the backbone of a fully combat-ready army structure at its disposal, which allowed Israel to survive during the War of Independence (according to some estimates, the most difficult war in Israel's history, more difficult than the same Yom Kippur War) …
At the same time, it is possible to point out a very interesting point: the Jewish national state does not, unlike most countries of the world, have an official doctrine of military security (despite a number of unsuccessful attempts to formalize it, the last of which was in 2007). In a sense, the official military doctrine of Israel is considered the biblical religious texts of the TANAKH, to which are added Talmudic commentaries, again based on the Old Testament texts of Judaism, which once again makes it possible to consider this state partially religious-theocratic.
Israel's known military budget is currently $ 17 billion, which makes it one of the largest in the Middle East (for comparison, the military budget of Egypt is $ 6 billion, Iran's $ 12 billion, despite the fact that the population of each of these states surpasses Israeli by about 10 times). Accordingly, in terms of military spending per capita, Israel is in one of the leading places in the world.
It is well known that military conscription in the Israel Defense Forces is compulsory for both sexes, with only some concessions for females. However, in spite of everything, it is still completely insufficient to win a non-nuclear war with a coalition of several Islamic countries, since the IDF is currently conscripting only about 560,000 people in the mobilization reserve.
Therefore, in the event of a regional war, Israeli strategists pin their hopes only on the rapid mobilization of the army - it is believed that the IDF is able to fully mobilize all reservists within 1 day.
In addition, the Israeli military leadership pays special attention to the development of internal communications, thanks to which a very rapid transfer of troops between the regions of the country and the direction of forces to the most threatening sectors of the front is possible.
The Air Force plays a special role in ensuring Israel's national security. With up to 40,000 personnel and at least 400 combat aircraft. Of this number, about 300 are 4th generation vehicles that have undergone deep modernization, and several dozen 5th generation vehicles.
Despite the seemingly relatively insignificant numerical indicators, the Israeli Air Force is one not only of the regional, but even of the world leaders both in the quality of combat training and in the sphere of aircraft maintenance and flight information support.
It is this branch of the armed forces, as you know, performs, if necessary, the function of Israel's "long arm" on the scale of the Middle East, as witnessed by the skeletons of bombed nuclear reactors in Iraq, Syria and Iran.
Also, the Air Force of the Jewish national state has a very large assortment of UAVs of various classes, from light reconnaissance to heavy drums, both of its own and of imported production.
The Israeli Navy is not a critical branch of the armed forces for the existence of the state, and their tasks are mainly limited to the protection of coasts, naval bases, the protection of sea communications in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea, as well as the blockade of the sea coast of a potential enemy.
Numerically, they consist of about 12,000 people, who are distributed among the 3 naval bases of Israel - Eilat, Ashdod and Haifa. Structurally, the Israeli Navy consists of a flotilla of submarines (some of which are supposedly carriers of missiles with nuclear warheads) and a fleet of surface warships (missile and patrol boats).
A separate unit, organizationally part of the structure of the fleet, is the "Marine Special Forces" - a group of naval saboteurs "Shayetet 13", one of the most elite and deeply classified units in the IDF.
According to some reports, this unit is like a secret naval analogue of the strike unit of the Israeli foreign intelligence "MOSSAD", since their presence was noted in various Mediterranean countries, including geographically very distant from Israel. Landings on the shores of the "Shayatetovites" were probably carried out from submarines or with the help of ultra-small submarines operated from Israeli merchant ships.
Thus, even from the presented brief overview, one can quite clearly see that the Israeli armed forces are not only among the leading in the Middle East region, but are also capable of creating problems for most of the armies of the countries of the world.
The main strategic problems of Israel are the numerical limitedness of its military contingents, in comparison with the mobilization resources of potential adversaries, and Israel's lack of operational depth of territory.
At the same time, at present, the geopolitical situation around Israel is very favorable: Egypt and Jordan are not only bound by long-standing peace treaties, but also have no desire to start a new war; Syria has been plunged into chaos of civil confrontation and will not become a serious adversary for a long time to come.
Currently, the main opponents of Israel in the Middle East in tactical terms are various underground radical groups (Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc.), which are irreconcilable enemies of this country, but cause more concern than actual harm.
The main strategic enemy of Israel in the current period is Iran. In addition to the facts of declarative denial of the right of the Jewish national state to exist on the territory of the former British Palestine in general, Iran is rapidly developing its own missile technologies, and, in addition, it supports various underground radical Islamist groups opposing Israel in various ways.
Also, for the first time in nearly 40 years since the establishment of the Ayatollahs' power in Tehran, Iran has managed to send troops into Syria, i.e. directly on the approaches to the Israeli border, which has never happened. This fact is perceived extremely painfully in Jerusalem and is forcing the Israeli authorities to take more and more aggressive steps, even despite the simultaneous admonitions from both Russia and the United States.
However, the main threat to Israel's national security is currently considered to be the possibility of Iran getting not only delivery vehicles, but also nuclear warheads themselves, which invariably provokes Israel to respond to various of this country.
And it was in the continuation of the anti-Israeli attacks of Iran, which is currently actively influencing the situation through the Tehran-controlled Lebanese Hezbollah (while in Syria, Russia demanded that the Iranians comply with the condition that there are no Shiite formations controlled by Tehran in the border areas), the IDF announced the start of military operations. actions on the Lebanese border. And although the operation that began on December 4, 2018 has not yet turned out to be large-scale, although it received the loud name "Northern Shield", it once again confirmed the veracity of the ancient prophecy that "there is and will not be peace in the Holy Land …"
