Commando Brigade fighters took off to Cyprus by helicopters, landed in a mountainous area that simulates southern Lebanon, and practiced surprise raids, occupation of targets, evacuation, wounding, wounding of a local population - and kidnapping of soldiers • Walnut commander: "The idea is to train as close as possible to the war"

• Commando fighters in Cyprus. Major D: "We have done more than six months of battle in favor of this exercise"

  Photography:

  Oren Cohen

The play is surreal, like a movie customer. Israeli soldiers, dressed in uniform and armed from head to toe, raid targets in Cyprus. Cross mountains, villages and roads to reach the goal and conquer it. The Cypriots watch the play in amazement. Maybe it's the action that wakes up their sleepy state, maybe it's the unknown powers or the foreign language. Nobody really has a clue what's going on here and why, but they don't ask. Polite.

Curiosity is understandable. After all, not every day more masses of Israeli commandos land in a foreign country and carry out a full military exercise there. Practicing in landings, raids, target occupations, far from home. And that, in essence, is the whole idea: dealing with the different.

Photo: IDF Spokesman

Israel is small, crowded, familiar. Air Force pilots know every damper orally, and the fighters know every crevice and clog. Even if you do a "surprise" exercise, nothing is really surprising. Not the route, not the opponent, not even the personal challenge of every fighter: at the end of each route, the RSP will always be equipped with pods, and the phone with the friends and family wetsup groups will be at hand.

Training abroad is another challenge. Nothing is known. Flying far and wide, over foreign territory, practicing in new territories that sometimes need to be studied and analyzed in real time, and faced with professional and personal difficulties, where you really depend only on yourself and your friends, and you have no complete system behind you In other words: as much as possible to what awaits the IDF in the next war.

And because the forefront of this war would be the commando brigade, it was decided to launch it for training far from home, in Cyprus, which serves them as "Lebanon's duplicate" - both in the distance, and in the topographical conditions expected of it in the next war with Hezbollah.

The first commando training in Cyprus was held two years ago. This year also dedicated training in the local Trudos Mountains. But last week's training is the most extensive to date, and it is also the first time the IDF has allowed journalists to participate, exclusively for "Israel Today."

More about the IDF Commando Brigade:

• Message to Enemies: Extensive commando brigade exercise in two segments

• Commandos reinforcement: A missile unit is classified

• Head of the special

Chief of Staff Kochavi, following his predecessor Eisenkott, posed the northern arena as the IDF's main challenge. This means that as training and all programs speak Lebanon, think Lebanon and behave Lebanon, in order to be truly prepared to fight Lebanon and not be as surprised or helpless as in 2006.

The third Lebanon war, if it breaks out, will be unlike anything Israel has known in the past. Forces will face a simple challenge: fortified villages, with a host of threats and challenges, from anti-tank missiles and cargo to tunnels and bunkers. The main threat is facing the home front. An array of about 140,000 missiles and rockets, aimed at every point in Israel.

During the Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah launched an average of 200 rockets each day of combat; In the next war, he plans to shoot four-digit rockets every day. This will require the IDF a special effort to deprive the organization of this capability. Most of the effort will be aerial, but will also require complementary ground operations to take over territories and prevent launches. The commando division will be there.

• • •

The brigade was formed in 2015 under the direction of former chief of staff, Gadi Iznakut. The idea was to establish a quality force that was available, skilled, trained and well equipped, and could work anywhere, against any enemy, even though the reference scenario was and there was a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Four high-quality battalions were assigned to the idea: walnut, magellan, cherry and pomegranate. Each of them had been parked elsewhere in the army by then. Egoz belonged to the Golani Brigade, Magellan operated under the fire station close to the paratroopers, Cherry focused on counterterrorism activities in Judea and Samaria and Rimon belonged to the Southern Command.

At the beginning of this road, an unnatural hybrid appeared. Nothing connected the units. Even the beret color was different: red in magellan and cherry, brown in walnut, purple in pomegranate. Since then, a lot of water has been flowing in the river, and the Golanchics have also grown accustomed to the red cap and red shoes that all combatants currently wear.

Each fighter in the Commando Brigade signs a permanent four months. Their minority remains for a full year. The original idea was that all fighters would sign for a year to give them seniority and experience, but that was curbed because of the high budget costs.

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The first division commander was David Zini, a Golani man, now a commander of the reserve division. It was replaced by my father, who is now the prime minister's military secretary. The third, and present, is the Golani man, Kobi Heller, who previously served as the southern brigade commander in the Gaza Division, and before that, the cherry-picker.

The brigade was placed under the responsibility of the Fire Brigade, the IDF Depth Division, alongside the Paratroopers Brigade and the Archery Brigade (elite paratroopers brigade). Recently, the division also received a high quality part of the fire system, which used to be the Artillery Corps Significant and more effective power for the next war.

Although the various units in the commando have been subdivided into one division, they continue to maintain their uniqueness. Grenade was disbanded last year and became a company within Magellan, but the other three battalions - Walnut, Magellan and Cherry - continue to exist and operate both as an independent and a divisional unit, under the commando.

Each has a different original designation. Cherry is the flagship unit for counter-terrorism in Judea and Samaria - the high-quality and immediate arm (alongside the UAV) of the ISA and the Yesha Division. Until its establishment, it has operated independently under the division commander, but today it has a dual mission: fighting terror, and during war. - A high-quality force, under the commando brigade, that will exploit the high capabilities of the fighters in favor of operational activities at various descriptions, including those that the unit is a focal point of knowledge, such as combat in built terrain.

Walnut, established in the second half of the 1990s to address Hezbollah's activities in southern Lebanon, specializes in guerrilla warfare. Established a decade earlier, Magellan specializes in in-depth operations, using unique military service. Both Walnut and Magellan have a rich operational record: their high quality and verstility have made them the most effective punch of the IDF. Being stronger and less selective than the special units, and much more flexible than the regular divisions, they found themselves in front and escalation at every arena of confrontation or escalation - from the Second Lebanon War and operations in Gaza, to on-call and covert operations on the northern border.

In the routine, the units operate separately. Cherry devotes most of her time to operations in the Occupied Territories, and if required in the event of an emergency, her reserve battalion, composed of former unit fighters, will be replaced. Magellan and Walnut are doing quite a bit of high quality activity: In the "northern shield" operation to destroy Hezbollah tunnels, the two battalions were deployed along the border to secure the forces, and to provide immediate response to any operational development in the field.

• • •

One of the main challenges of the commando division is to preserve the uniqueness of each force, but also to enable it to act as one operational framework in the war. The training and operational activities should allow this, and in particular - the quality of the fighters and commanders. The commando brigade is second in the quality chain in combat units, with only elite units in front of it: the General Staff Patrol, the 13th Cruise, the Sheldag and the 669.

The division is in great demand with the young men who are recruited. Although the name "commando" is not yet fully rooted, and the UAVs speak of the original units (Magellan, Cherry, Walnut), but the motivation at the peak - before and after recruitment.

Commando fighters in Cyprus. The complicated logistics served the brigade and required careful preparation and personal inspection in front of every soldier // Photo: Oren Cohen

In the past, recruitment candidates had to run around the various formations. Boys underwent formulation for the elite units, and if they failed, restarted the sorting route in the other units. Beyond the loss of school days during adulthood, it caused a grief and increased the likelihood of injuries. In the Personnel Division, they decided to reduce the streamlines and optimize them.

As a result, the commando division is currently in command of the IDF Patrol and the Cruiser. Both of these units select first among the candidates, and immediately after them - the commando. Subsequently, the division also streamlines the fighter training path. If each unit has trained its fighters in the past, Today, the basic training is common, and only in the advanced stage are the specific trainings being completed, and soon the establishment of the commando school in Adam camp will be completed, under which all the training in the division will be incorporated.

Because the Commando Brigade is the forefront of the IDF in every operational outline, it receives not only the best fighters but also the highest quality commanders. Lieutenant A, Commander Egoz, arrived from the General Staff Patrol; A Magellan commander, had previously commanded the 202nd Battalion; Lieutenant Colonel E, a cherry-picker, was the commander of the Nachshon Battalion in the Kfir Brigade. All three of them are considered to be high-quality officers in the army. A has already been appointed Commander of the Reserve Brigade next summer, R. will command the Samaritan Brigade, and A - on the Western Brigade in the Galilee Division.

• • •

The preparations for the exercise were complex. Bringing all the fighters to one place, loading them on the planes and helicopters, transferring to Cyprus the brigade's vehicles. Some were transported by sea, some by air. In the middle of the exercise there was the accident of a helicopter, which had to make an emergency landing in the south and was completely burned. The fact that the ceasefire was completely disabled required the forces in Cyprus to reassemble and find alternative ways to recapture the forces and vehicles, whose agitation was their flying platform.

But the complicated logistics served the division. She required order, rigorous preparation, a personal check in front of every soldier he was preparing to "ride." The brigade personally met every fighter in the week prior to the drill, to make sure everyone was prepared and understood the importance of the event. Supposedly "another drill", in practice - the closest it could be to the next war.

Almost all the commando brigade troops arrived in Cyprus. The only limitation was the number of soldiers the Air Force was able to fly. Since this was an exercise, everything was done in an operational outline: Soldiers took off in the middle of the night in helicopter and Black Hawk helicopters and aircraft from various Air Force bases, on their equipment, and placed at the target - right into action. Everyone knew in advance that they were going on exercise, but the exact outline was kept secret to leave a certain element of surprise.

Going to a foreign country required the soldiers with passports. Border police opened branches at the Air Force bases in sprouts and palm trees, and only after the passports were stamped did the troops take off. The division tells of a soldier in the Walnut, who in the final order did not find his passport and had to stay in the country.

The place limit has led to struggles over participation in the exercise. There were reserve officers who came to Cyprus at their expense, on private flights, because it was important for them to participate.

In the passport registration before the trip. Older and more experienced reservists also joined // Photo: Oren Cohen

"We have done more than six months of combat in favor of this exercise," says Major D, Deputy Commander of the Owl Squadron (Black Hawk), which commanded the air force in the exercise. "We operated aircraft and helicopters in favor of the exercise, on a long-range flight. Each pilot was trained on landing in unfamiliar terrain, and also in bounces to evacuate wounded and to join forces with ground forces. The idea was to practice under conditions we don't have in the country, with high mountains, in a foreign language. "

Lt. Col. A. commanded the deployment of the Air Force in Cyprus, which also included a technical system designed to address the field's every possible problem. "This exercise simulates for us the northern front," he says. "Fly far, change goals and missions on the road, practice day and night. , To know how to fly low and navigate a foreign and threatened area. "

• • •

The flight by helicopters, from Paphos to Paphos, took about an hour and a half. The flight from the sprouts was a little longer. The fighters were placed on the ground and immediately set off. The first target was a raid on Camp "Ken" - a facility of the Cyprus army, which was "occupied" by Israeli forces. Then the troops proceeded to the open area, training for a variety of characters. Because this is a foreign country, the entire training was without the use of live shooting. The target for next year is full training, this time on "wet."

Israel has a deep strategic relationship with the Cypriots. It is a warm, intimate relationship that exists at all levels: from the prime minister, through the Defense Ministry and the IDF leadership, to the forces on the ground. The local air force commander sat down to talk to the Israeli pilots. His power is small and includes only helicopters, but he wanted to learn During the exercise, he also met the commander of the Air Force, Gen. Amikam Norkin, who jumped in for a short visit.

Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi also came for a few hours to visit the forces, and took the opportunity to skip Nicosia and meet with his Cypriot counterpart. Kochavi is a big believer in his commando and mission, and allocates quite a bit of attention and resources to the division. In the current era of tightening budget, commando training There were no injuries.

Accompanying stars were also accompanied by the Northern Command's champion, Amir Baram, and the ground arm commander, Colonel Joel Strick. They came not only to see the exercise, but to test new capabilities. To a large extent, the Commando Brigade is not only the forefront of a future war, but also an experimental laboratory that tests ideas and possibilities - from operational matters to complex logistical and medical issues, which require the battlefield uncertainty to be addressed.

Cyprus is similar to Lebanon: the mountains, the vegetation, the need to act among citizens. For the officers and young soldiers it is a new and unfamiliar world. Most of them were born only shortly before the withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, and did not participate in the Second Lebanon War. In fact, with the exception of the commander and the battalions, they are all devoid of real combat experience.

The Second Lebanon War was all that should never happen the next time: forces got stuck a meter from the fence; The wounded waited hours for medical evacuation; Arms and food did not arrive on time; The great IDF got into its own tail; fighters lost their way, and mostly did not realize that war was a kingdom of uncertainty. There was no perfect intelligence, and all plans could collapse, or change.

The lesson applied in the commando is that the forces are supposed to rely only on themselves. This is true at the brigade level, and the same is true for the lone soldier. "What my warrior does not take on his back - there will be," says Commander Heller, "if he runs out of water, he will have nothing to drink, and if he runs out of food - he will have nothing to eat. We do not have an armor here that pushes him to stomach more combat and ammunition. We operate far, independent, and depend only on ourselves. A fighter who comes from Chokmak will lose his confidence very quickly. He probably won't be able to manage for a few days and no situation will be met and will win. ".

Treatment of "injured" in the field during the exercise. The temporary hospital is equipped with monitors, respirators and even a portable blood laboratory and oxygen generators // Photo: Oren Cohen

The Warriors learn to think about everything in advance. to plan. They cannot build on the fact that "it will be okay," because the chances of the war are the opposite. Therefore, the preparation for the exercise was exceptional, in many ways similar to the operations of the special units, where extreme care is taken on every detail. But the Commando Brigade is not a team of 20-10 fighters in an elite unit, but a force of eight hundred combatants in each of its frames.

Careful attention to detail should reduce the risk of something going wrong. Think of everything here in advance. The fighters take with them whatever they may need on the ground, knowing that they are supposed to know how to get along with what's in store. So instead of countless gallons of water, each fighter takes a few chlorine tablets on his back as well. If he ran out of water, he would go down to the nearby river, fill the Jerican, add a tablet - and drink.

The same is true for food: some fighters take flour with them. If the food runs out, they will bake bread. Regardless, everyone has energy snacks called soldier fuel, which are of extremely high nutritional value.

When we passed a gas station, during the exercise, no one in HFC came into the shop to buy coffee. Instead, the reservists - some of them volunteers who have long crossed the age at which they can be discharged - removed coffee and prepared them all. The Cypriot fuels at the station looked at them in amazement.

• • •

Because the commando brigade is supposed to operate in relatively complicated and far away places, it cannot rely on continuous and immediate medical evacuation. That is why creative solutions were found, some of them exclusive: from an inmate of Loram - an advanced medical warrior, a kind of hybrid between paramedic and paramedic, who should provide life-saving procedures in the field, to a deployed hospital capable of independent functioning in hostile territory - JRA Aerial).

Major A. (31) is the commando medical officer. Married and father of two, lives in Hurfish. His uncle is Chief Medical Officer, Brigadier General Trif Bader. A. studied at the Technion, and after graduating, was the physician of the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers and the IDF in the Engineering Corps. "We understand that we cannot immediately evacuate any wounded to a hospital in the country," he says. Performing relatively complex analyzes under field conditions. "

A wounded fighter receives an initial response on the ground, then is evacuated to the temporary hospital, located nearby. The decision to set up the hospital is not simple: it is a stationary facility that can become a target on the battlefield. "When we go into a complex two-three-hour analysis here, we should know for sure that we can complete it, too, and not be stopped in the middle because we are being attacked," says Major-General YA, the Brigade Commander.

In Cyprus, the hospital was established near the forces and treated the "wounded" fighters. At the entrance to a tent used by a hospital, the victims were sorted according to the severity of their injuries and the urgency of the treatment required. Treatments and surgeries were performed in the back of the tent.

The hospital is well equipped: from monitors and respirators, through a portable blood lab to oxygen generators, who can take in air and turn it into high-level oxygen. The medical team consists of senior doctors and hospital nurses, all former combatants, which is their reserve service. Like the regular fighters, the reservists are also on a volunteer commando; they all wanted to serve here, and they all volunteered in Cyprus.

The exercise was conducted on relatively cold days in Cyprus, certainly compared to Hamasin in the country. On some days, it also rained heavily, which restricted air activity and also made it difficult to do ground operations. Despite this, it was decided not to change the layout of the exercise. "The war may also rain," says the commander. "The soldiers need to know how to deal with it."

Cyprus is also a great laboratory in terms of the difficulty of communicating continuously with the General Staff, transmitting information and obtaining information. In the past, the division has been "attacked" by hostile cyber elements, depriving it of the ability to rely on current systems immediately. And find solutions to continue to be effective.

Israeli fighters in the Cypriot mud. Lieutenant Colonel R., Magellan Commander: "We have practiced high improvisation ability to cope with all the variables in the field" // Photo: Oren Cohen

The exercise simulates other expected war threats, such as kidnappings. The brigade is accompanied by a force of the Detention Unit (Ethan), headed by Lt. Col. Yohai. "We are trying to prepare the soldiers for the possibility of this happening so that they do not meet the threat for the first time in the war," he said. To do this, puppets, simulated blood and even odor generators are used, and of course - abducted.

In the exercise, a soldier was "kidnapped" by Hizbullah. Ethan people were required to conduct a quick area investigation to understand what happened, and to reach a quick conclusion whether the kidnapper was alive or dead - a critical matter with strategic implications.

• • •

For Lieutenant Colonel A, Walnut Commander, this is already the second exercise in Cyprus. In May he was here for arduous training in the mountains, which included steep ascents, with each fighter carrying about 70 percent of his body weight. "The idea is to train as close as possible to the war," He says, "We try not to pretend, but to imagine what it really is."

For this reason, soldiers were also not allowed to take cell phones to Cyprus - in order to maintain complete disconnection from the home. And for that reason, he himself was "injured" at the end of the exercise, to allow his deputy to take command of the unit.

R., Magellan Commander, is also practicing extreme descriptors here. "The fighters are required for careful planning to be prepared for any scenario, but also for high improvisation, to cope with the variables in the field. This means, for example, knowing to map gas stations, being able to refuel the vehicles in enemy territory, or finding solutions for extended stays in the field." .

In Cyprus, despite the rain, the fighters are sleeping outdoors. It was a quick sleep anyway. Even the way home went by training: Magellan soldiers completed an onslaught, and then navigated 15 miles on foot, to Paphos Airport, where the planes and helicopters were waiting to take them home. Walnut fighters arrived at the airport half a day in front of them, on the buses, after finishing "occupation" of a mountainous destination.

And there was folklore, too.From the need to train kitchens, through the expedited driving training on the left side of the road, which they had to pass in advance of those who used to drive local vehicles, and to meet with the Cypriot citizens. The soldiers passed through mountains and forests, but also agricultural areas, roads and villages.

This friction is intended to teach them to deal with a civilian population, who will meet them in any future combat outline. Local Lebanon can be assumed to be a little less polite.

It was hard not to be impressed by the forces' coping with the challenge. Although the Commando Brigade is equipped with the best people and weapons, nevertheless - even with a glance for a moment, it is evident that serious preparatory work is being done for the next war. The exercise in Cyprus has proved to be a mistake for those who doubted the logic of establishing the brigade, because the IDF now has an available, effective and deadly tool capable of detecting and destroying an enemy.

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