The armed forces of Israel. Short review on the eve of the new war
The Middle East is one of the “hot spots” of our planet, and the State of Israel is one of the main centers of tension in the region and, willy-nilly, participates to varying degrees in most regional conflicts.
This forces the Jewish national state from the moment of its emergence 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 has its own military-industrial industry, it can be said that by and large it did not exist, then since the 1970s this area of the Israeli economy has been constantly developing and expanding. Currently, the "Jewish national hearth" is capable of independently producing completely different military equipment, starting from tanks and ending with 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complex of modern Israel are various contracts with foreign countries, primarily related to the deep modernization of outdated military equipment.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 CIBAT - the Directorate 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 data, the share of export contracts is up to 80% of the volume of military-technological production of the Jewish state).
MANHAR, the Directorate for the Coordination of the Military Industry, which also imports military equipment into this country, is responsible for the production of equipment that comes into service directly to the army of Israel itself, and its modernization programs.
These two organizations form, as it were, two parts of the production segment of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which is also in charge of military and dual-purpose research projects.
In general, Israel, so small both geographically and numerically, is one of the leading players in the global arms market. So, in the period from 2013 to 2017. this country has risen from 10 to 8 in the ranking of the world's leading exporters weapons and military systems, which in itself is an amazing result.
According to the estimates of the Stockholm International Research University, Israel occupies approximately 2,9% of the world market for weapons and military equipment, not so far from, say, a country like France (whose share has decreased in recent years and is 6,7%).
It is also well known that its diverse strategic cooperation in the military sphere in the United States is of fundamental importance for the security of Israel. Since the 1950, Israel has had the priority status of America’s key military ally outside NATO, which makes Washington the supplier of the number one weapons and military technology to the Jewish national state.
It should be noted that within the framework of only financial and economic assistance in the military sphere from the United States, numerically very few Israel receive huge sums. So, if in the 2000-ies it was an average of 2,5 billion dollars per year, then for the period 2019-2028, according to the funding program, the USA will provide Israel with 3,8 billion dollars annually, and this is only through military cooperation.
Of course, it should be noted that only a quarter of the received trenches Jerusalem can spend at its discretion; 3 / 4 funds Washington provides in the form of grants for the purchase of exclusively American military equipment.
But one way or another, it is thanks to military and financial-economic assistance from the United States that the Jewish state is free from a considerable part of military and scientific and technical expenses, which at the same time allows the Israeli military-industrial complex to work for export, attracting income to the country rather than becoming exorbitant a burden for the national economy.
Of course, a very important role in the military security of Israel is played by the free and in fact free imports of the latest military technology from the United States. In particular, it was thanks to this cooperation program that Israel received back in the 2016 year several F-35, the famous American 5 combat aircraft of the generation, of which at least 2 squadrons are currently formed (Arab media report data on the different number of delivered aircraft of this type in Hel haavir "- from 19 to 28).
However, despite the scale and depth of military-economic cooperation 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, no doubt, is determined by the geopolitical necessity of preserving the “freedom of hands” by both sides.
Israeli armed forces
The armed forces of Israel appeared, one might say, long before the official formation of this state, in the form of militarized Jewish extremist organizations (Hagana, Etzel, etc.) that secretly existed on the territory of British Mandate Palestine.
Actually, by the year of 1948, the young Jewish state already had the backbone of a fully combat-ready army structure, which allowed Israel to survive during the War of Independence (according to some estimates, the hardest war in stories Israel, more difficult than the same Doomsday War).
At the same time, it is possible to point to a very interesting point: the Jewish national state does not, unlike most countries of the world, have an official military security doctrine (despite a number of unsuccessful attempts to formalize it, the last of which was in 2007 year). In a sense, the official military doctrine of Israel is considered the biblical religious texts of the Tanach, to which are added the Talmudic comments, again based on the Old Testament texts of Judaism, which once again allows us to consider this state partly religious-theocratic.
Israel’s well-known military budget currently amounts to 17 billion, which makes it one of the largest in the Middle East (for comparison, Egypt’s military budget is 6 billion, Iran’s 12 billion, with the population of each of these countries exceeds Israeli by about 10 times). Accordingly, in terms of per capita military spending, Israel is in one of the leading places in the world.
It is well known that the military conscription in the Israel Defense Forces is obligatory for both sexes, with only some indulgences for women. However, this, in spite of everything, is still completely insufficient for victory in a non-nuclear war with a coalition of several Islamic countries, since at present the IDA gives an appeal to only about 560.000 people of mobilization reserve.
Therefore, in the event of a regional war, Israeli strategists place their hopes only on the rapid mobilization of the army - it is believed that the IDF is able to fully mobilize all reservists during 1 days.
In addition, the Israeli military leadership pays special attention to the development of internal communications, thanks to which it is possible to transport troops very quickly between regions of the country and to send forces to the most threatening sectors of the front.
A special role in ensuring the national security of Israel is played by the Air Force. Numbered to 40.000 personnel and at least 400 combat aircraft. Of this number, roughly 300 are 4-generation machines that have been deeply upgraded, and several dozen 5 generation machines.
Despite the seemingly insignificant numerical figures, the Israeli Air Force is one of not only regional, but even of world leaders in terms of the quality of combat training, and in the field of aircraft maintenance and flight information support.
It is precisely this branch of service, as is known, which, if necessary, performs the function of Israel’s “long arm” throughout the Middle East, as witnessed by the skeletons of bombed-out 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 percussion, both of its own and imported.
The Israeli Navy is not a critically important type of military for the existence of the state, and their tasks are mainly limited to the protection of the coasts, naval bases, the protection of maritime communications in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea, as well as the blockade of the seacoast of the likely enemy.
Numerically, they consist of about 12.000 people, which are distributed between the 3 naval bases of Israel - Eilat, Ashdod and Haifa. Structurally, the Israeli Navy consists of flotilla submarines (some of which are supposedly carriers of missiles with nuclear warheads) and a fleet of surface combat ships (missile and patrol boats).
A separate unit, organizationally included in the structure of the fleet, is the "sea special forces" - a group of sea saboteurs "Shyett 13", one of the most elite and highly classified units in the AOI.
According to some reports, this unit is, as it were, the secret maritime analogue of the Mossad Israeli assault unit, since their presence was noted in various Mediterranean countries, including geographically very distant from Israel. Landings on the coast of "Shayatetovtsev" probably made with submarines or with the help of ultra-small submarines operating from Israeli merchant ships.
Thus, even from the presented brief review, it is quite clear that the Israeli armed forces are not only one of the leading in the Middle East region, but also are capable of creating problems for most armies of the countries of the world.
The main strategic problems of Israel are the numerical limitation of its military contingents, compared with the mobilization resources of potential adversaries, and the absence of Israel’s operational depth of the territory.
At the same time, the geopolitical situation around Israel is now 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 is plunged into the chaos of civil confrontation and will not be a serious opponent for a long time.
Currently, the main opponents of Israel in the Middle East tactically remain various underground radical groups (Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc.), which are irreconcilable enemies of this country, but cause more concern than real harm.
The main strategic opponent of Israel in the current period is Iran. In addition to the facts of the 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 the various underground radical Islamist groups opposing Israel.
Also for the first time in almost 40 years that have passed since the establishment of Ayatollah’s government in Tehran, Iran managed to bring troops into Syria, i.e. directly to the approaches to the Israeli border, which has never happened before. This fact is extremely painfully perceived in Jerusalem and forces the Israeli authorities to more and more aggressive steps, even despite simultaneous exhortations from both Russia and the United States.
However, the main threat to Israel’s national security at present is the possibility of Iran obtaining not only the delivery vehicles, but also the nuclear warheads themselves, which invariably provoke Israel to various retaliatory measures: from the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists and theft of Iranian nuclear secrets to Washington’s influence on of this country.
And it was precisely in the continuation of the anti-Israeli attacks of Iran, which is currently actively influencing the situation through Lebanese Hezbollah controlled by Tehran (whereas in Syria Russia demanded that the Iranians comply with the condition that there are no Shiite formations controlled by Tehran in the border areas) action on the Lebanese border. And although the operation started on 4 on December 2018 of the year 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 no peace in the Holy Land ...”
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