The IDF has begun a process of equipping infantry officers to command armored units - and armored officers in infantry positions • The goal: to prepare the units for a future war in which they will have to cooperate • "The next battle will be multidimensional and must be conducted accordingly."

For the first time in decades, an armored officer is currently taking on the position of deputy commander of the paratroopers' brigade, and in addition, an engineering officer is expected to serve as deputy commander of the armored brigade. 

This is part of an expanding pilot, in which infantry officers are trained as commanders of companies and armored battalions, and at the same time armored officers are allowed to serve in infantry positions, as part of the Chief of Staff's move to introduce the multidimensional battle model. 

Photo: IDF Spokesman

The pilot began about a year ago, when infantry officers began to enter the various armored brigades, but now the move is gaining momentum with the entry of Lieutenant Colonel Meir Biderman, former commander of the Shizafon Armored School to the position of deputy commander of the paratroopers' brigade. Us to know each other in depth. An officer who knows the various fields in depth will be a better and more professional officer, "Lt. Col. Biderman told Israel Today. This week, the officer completed a parachuting course, and he clarifies: "Although I will be a paratrooper for a year, I am an armorer in my soul." 

In recent years, the IDF has intensified training between the arms, in order to prepare the various battalions and brigades for a future war, in which they will inevitably have to cooperate. 

Pilot in the tank

Thus, in a large exercise of the 188th Brigade in Tze'elim there were pilots in the tanks, including a squadron commander, with the understanding that it is not enough to hear the voices in the connection but to feel the tools up close. At the same time, Golani, Nahal and other units are conducting exercises regularly with the armored battalions to deepen their understanding. Now the IDF has decided to raise the bar and grow armored personnel trained as infantry officers and vice versa. 

  "We are making history," said a senior official. In the IDF in a conversation with Israel Today. He said, "The issue of looking at combat in the layout of a battalion and brigade combat team has been true for a long time, but in recent years we have realized that it is not enough to just attach engineering to armor but also to infiltrate infantry battalions into tanks." The force must be built in a multi-faceted manner so that the battalion commander, as a code name, will have the skills to command various frameworks, and not just in his original area of ​​expertise. "