The IDF are gradually losing the experience of a classic war, although they are permanently in a state of rebellion against the Arabs and Hezbollah
Since its founding in 1947, Israel has been in a hostile environment of Arab states, with which it fought seven times, not counting the permanent war against the Palestinians on its own territory. Because of this, being very small in terms of territory and population, Israel has an armed forces (Armed Forces - IDF), one of the five strongest in the world. They are recruited by conscription, which even women are subject to, while all conscripts are constantly undergoing retraining in the units to which they are assigned. The level of combat, moral and psychological training of the Israeli military is considered to be the highest in the world. This fact, by the way, completely destroys all the arguments of the fighters for the "professional army". Their traditional argument that "Israel is in special conditions" is, of course, not an argument, it simply has nothing to do with the case. There is a fact - the most conscripted army in the world is also the most professional without quotation marks. It does not depend on any "special conditions".
Israel is the exclusive partner of the United States, receiving from them the latest military equipment. A certain amount of equipment is purchased in other Western countries, in addition, the country has a very powerful military-industrial complex, which produces weapons and equipment of all classes, including nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. At the same time, due to the country's constant readiness for a major war along the entire perimeter of the borders, a significant amount of old equipment, including captured Soviet ones, is stored in Israel.
It is impossible not to mention one more factor that additionally strengthens the military potential of Israel - the emphasized disregard for the norms of international law and the readiness to strike at anyone, at any time. This provides such useful things in military affairs as surprise and initiative.
What is the Israeli army
The ground forces of Israel are divided into three military districts, and it is the command of the districts that directs the actions of the forces subordinate to them, and the command of the ground forces as a whole has only administrative functions.
The Northern VO includes the 36th Gaash Armored Division (it includes the 1st Infantry Golani, the 7th Saar Me-Golan, the 188th Barak Armored Brigades), the 91st Territorial Division Ha-Galil, 143 Amud HaEsh, 319 HaMapatz, 366 Netiv HaEsh reserve armored divisions.
Central Military District includes the 162nd armored division "Ha-Plada" (it includes the 401st armored "Iquot ha-Barzel", 933rd "Nahal", 900th "Kfir" infantry brigades), 877th territorial division of Judea and Samaria, 98th reserve special division "Ha-Esh" (35th, 551st "Hetzei HaEsh", 623rd "Hod Ha-Khanit" parachute brigades), 340th reserve division " Idan ".
Israeli soldiers in front of the Merkava tank. Photo: Abir Sultan / EPA / ITAR-TASS
The Southern Military District consists of the 80th territorial division "Edom" (it includes the territorial brigades "Arava", "Sagi", "Eilat"), the 643rd territorial division of the Gaza Strip (territorial brigades "Gefen", "Katif"), 252nd reserve armored division "Sinai", 84th infantry brigade "Givati".
In addition, there are a significant number of special and support units.
It is in the arsenal of the ground forces that most of the Israeli nuclear arsenal is located (its existence has not been officially confirmed, but there is no doubt about its presence). There are 50-90 Jericho-2 ballistic missiles (flight range - 1500-1800 km, warhead mass - 750-1000 kg) and 150 Jericho-1 (500 km, warhead - 1000 kg). The number of nuclear warheads is, according to various estimates, from 100 to 400.
The Israeli army's tank fleet includes 2030 Merkava tanks of four modifications (440 of the oldest Mk1, 450 Mk2, 780 Mk3, 360 of the most modern Mk4), some of which are in reserve. In addition, 350 old British Centurion tanks and 1800 Magah tanks, which are modernized American M60 and M48 (1040 Magah-7, 560 Magah-6, 200 Magah-5) are in storage.
Israel became the first country to create infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers on tank chassis with an appropriate level of protection. It is armed with 65 Namer infantry fighting vehicles (on the Merkava chassis), 215 Akhzarit armored personnel carriers (on the captured Soviet T-55 chassis), and 400 Nagmashot armored personnel carriers (on the Centurion chassis). In addition, there are 6131 American "traditional" M113 armored personnel carriers (some of them are in storage) and 100 own "Zeev".
In service there are 600 American self-propelled guns М109 (155 mm). In addition, 148 self-propelled guns L-33, 50 American M-50 (155 mm), 70 M107 (175 mm), 36 M110 (203 mm) are in storage. Similarly, in service there are 300 own towed guns M-71 (155 mm). At the same time, five captured Soviet D-30 (122 mm) and 100 M-46 (130 mm), 40 converted M-46, 50 own M-68 and 81 M-839/845 (155 mm) are in storage. They are in service with 250 mortars (81 mm), 64 self-propelled mortars "Kardom" and 250 M-65 (120 mm). At the same time, 1100 mortars (81 mm), 650 (120 mm), 18 M-66 (160 mm) are in storage. In service are 48 American MLRS MLRS (227 mm), 30 similar MLRS, as well as 58 Soviet BM-21 (122 mm) and 36 BM-24 (240 mm), 50 own LAR-160 (160 mm) and 20 LAR- 290 (290 mm) - in storage.
There are several hundred domestic ATGM "Spike" of various modifications.
The military air defense includes 500 American Stinger MANPADS and 400 own Macbeth air defense systems (created by installing four Stinger MANPADS on the American M163 air defense system).
F-16 (foreground) and F-15 of the Israeli Air Force. Photo: Ariel Schalit / AP
The backbone of the Israeli Air Force is the American F-15 and F-16 fighters. There are 53 F-15 (19 A, 6 B, 17 C, 11 D; another 4-10 A in storage), 25 F-15I (analogue of the American attack aircraft F-15E), 278 F-16 (44 A, ten B, 77 C, 48 D, 99 I; another 38 A, eight B, one D in storage). In addition, there are old fighters in storage - up to 109 American F-4E and eight reconnaissance aircraft RF-4E, 60 own "Kfir" (20 C1, 19 C2, two TC2, one R-C2, 18 C7). Also, combat aircraft include American attack aircraft - eight of the newest anti-guerrilla AT-802F (officially considered fire-fighting aircraft) and 26 old A-4N (38 more similar machines, as well as 17 A-4E, 5 F, 24 H are in storage), which are officially considered educational.
There are seven RC-12D reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, two Gulfstream-550 electronic warfare aircraft (seven ES-707 and one RC-707 in storage), 11 refueling tankers (four KS-130N, seven KS-707), 70 transport aircraft. It should be noted that the lack of tankers is the main (if not the only) real reason that Israel has not yet struck Iran. The United States, having two hundred KS-135 tankers in storage, however, does not give Israel even one - precisely because now they do not want to fight Iran at all.
Training aircraft - 17 German Grob-120, 20 American T-6A (two more in storage), 20 combat training TA-4 (two H, 18 J; two more H in storage) based on the aforementioned A-4 attack aircraft, one the newest Italian M-346.
Attack helicopters - 50 AN-64 Apache (29 A, 21 D; one more A in storage), 54 AN-1 Cobra (including ten E, ten F, 27 S; seven more E, 58 F, one S in storage). Multipurpose and transport helicopters - 19 OH-58V (one more in storage), ten CH-53A (three more A and five D in storage), 39 S-70A, ten UH-60A.
Israel is currently the only country in the world with a tactical missile defense system. It includes three Arrow anti-missile batteries (24 launchers) and one Iron Dom anti-missile battery, both systems of our own production. The "classic" air defense includes 17 batteries of the American Advanced Hawk air defense system (102 PU) and six batteries of the Patriot air defense system (48 PU), 105 American ZSU M163 (20 mm) and 60 Soviet ZSU-23-4 Shilka, 755 anti-aircraft guns - 150 Soviet ZU-23 (23 mm), 455 American M167 and own TSM-20 (20 mm), 150 Swedish L / 70 (40 mm).
The navy has in its composition four newest German submarines (submarines) of the Dolphin type (project 212, one more is under construction). It is believed that these submarines can carry nuclear SLCMs, although it is not entirely clear what type. Germany is building these submarines for Israel at half price, or even free of charge as compensation for the Holocaust.
In service are three missile corvettes of the Eilat (Saar-5) type, eight missile boats of the Hetz type (Saar-4, 5) and two Reshef (Saar-4) types, 47 patrol boats boats - 23 "Super Dvora" types, 15 "Dabur" types, five "Shaldag" types, four "Stingray" types. The corvettes are American-built, the rest are our own.
Naval aviation has three base patrol aircraft IAI-1124 of its own production and seven French AS565 anti-submarine helicopters.
"Erosion" of military consciousness
Recently, there has been a certain erosion of all the factors mentioned at the beginning of the article that make the Israeli army one of the strongest in the world. This was evident in the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was apparently unsuccessful for Israel. A noticeable rise in the standard of living and the complete Westernization of Israeli society led to the fact that pacifism and hedonism began to penetrate there (although, of course, the scale of these phenomena is incomparable with European ones), reducing the level of defense consciousness and, accordingly, moral and psychological training.
Israeli soldiers in Maroun al-Ras, Lebanon, 2006. Photo: Yaron Kaminsky / AP
The Israeli Armed Forces are gradually losing the experience of a classic war (the last was in 1982), although they are permanently in a state of rebellion against the Palestinians and Hezbollah. In addition, the Israelis are increasingly borrowing American methods of waging "contactless" war, which is unrealistic in their conditions. This further undermines the ability to wage a real war. The desire to completely secure the country from external threats leads to the adoption of rather strange measures, such as the creation of an air defense / missile defense system "Iron Dom" ("Iron Dome"). Within the framework of this system, with the help of missiles costing several hundred thousand dollars, NURSs costing several hundred (or even tens) dollars are destroyed.
Nevertheless, nothing seriously threatens Israel for the foreseeable future. Jordan has not been an enemy to him for a long time (neither in the military, nor in the political aspect), the return of the military to power in Egypt guarantees Israel security from the south, and comments are generally superfluous about present-day Syria.
Ally of Russia
Of course, Israel is not a potential enemy for Russia. But it is, firstly, a nuclear power, and secondly, it has a very significant impact on the geopolitical situation in the Near and Middle East. From the point of view of Russian interests, this influence is rather contradictory.
On the one hand, Israel is Russia's obvious ally in the fight against Islamic terrorism. Tel Aviv has always unconditionally supported all of Moscow's actions in Chechnya and in the North Caucasus in general. Interestingly, he also fully supported the actions of the Yugoslav leadership in the fight against the Kosovo separatists and spoke out sharply against the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999, fully in solidarity with Moscow. The Israeli experience in the fight against terrorism is of great interest to the Russian military and special services.
On the other hand, Israel's anti-Iranian paranoia is starting to create problems precisely in terms of the fight against terrorism. Both the scale and danger of Sunni terrorism, financed by the Arab monarchies led by Saudi Arabia, is an order of magnitude higher than the scale and danger of Shiite terrorism in the person of the small-town Lebanese Hezbollah, financed by Iran.
It is still difficult to take seriously the nuclear threat from Iran. Not to mention the fact that Tel Aviv was completely lying about Iranian plans and opportunities (based on numerous statements by Israeli officials over the years, Tehran should have created nuclear weapons 10 years ago), it does not follow from anything that Iranian leaders are suicides … It is difficult to understand the reasons for the anti-Iranian paranoia of the Jews. Apparently, the collective psychoses of small nations require a large separate study. And it is extremely doubtful that Moscow will be able to convince the Israelis of anything. Moreover, we have no less paranoia than the Jews.
