"In a total war scenario that includes missile strikes, it will be hard for use to realize our logistical capabilities. We're not as bunkered as we should be, we don’t have storage based on an underground infrastructure, and our supplies are not sufficiently protected," outgoing IDF Technology and Logistics Directorate chief Brig.-Gen. Ofer Wolf warns "Globes" in an interview. He is retiring from the army after 27 years.
Wolf says, "In time of war, some of the supplies available for the army will used up within days. We'll have to produce what we'll need in real time, during the fighting, but we cannot manufacture underground. At the same time, I am also talking about the storage of munitions, fuel, and other critical items for waging war. As far as I'm concerned, there's a lot of frustration, and the situation is worrying."
"Globes": What is delaying the move underground?
Wolf: "The bunker plan has been shelved for budget reasons. Storing munitions underground is expensive, costing hundreds of millions of shekels. You have to dig, install advanced climate control systems, and protection and back-up systems in case of an internal explosion. We don’t have this now, at least not enough. Our munitions and storage bases are aboveground, some are known to the enemy and they are targeted. Hitting them during wartime will hurt us. If we add to this that, during a war, traffic arteries are closed for security reasons, our operational ability will be on the ropes. There are countries far less threatened than us which have seen fit to invest in this direction.
The IDF sucks up money
Wolf is responsible for one of the IDF's largest and most important budgets, amounting to NIS 6.1 billion a year, for the current operations of units. A large part of the money is for ensuring that sufficient supplies are available for the army when the order is given. The problematic gap between combat needs and the supplies in the army's warehouses revealed on the eve of the 2006 Second Lebanon War will not be repeated, he promises.
After a year full of media battles between the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Finance over the size of the defense budget, Wolf placates, saying that the supplies available to the army in 2013 are well protected and the level of alert has not eroded. He emphasizes, however, that this readiness should be taken for granted, and that, in the future, it will be strongly affected by economic decisions that will be focused on the defense budget.
"Today, we have all the necessary levels of supplies. We look at all the full warehouses, and we see the full shelves as if we're looking at Hannukah candles. We look but we don’t touch. Any drop below the supplies level requires my explicit permission. I have quite good control about what is happening with the supplies, all the time. I know what is and what isn't. But it's a really slippery slope. If I don’t have a regular budget flow, the level of readiness will be harmed. The army consumes constantly because of training, and spare parts are used and have to be replaced," says Wolf, adding, "Yes, the IDF sucks up money, defense sucks up money. Any organization with such a character and size in the world sucks up a lot of money. Defense spending will always burden state expenditures, and yet, every shekel transferred to the IDF gives more defense."
Suppliers stole from bases
Wolf mentions a long list of streamlining and cost-savings measures that the IDF has taken in parallel with measures to improve its strength and readiness for the next war. "The big money is for current expenses: shoes, uniforms, weapons, vehicles, and optics used by units for operations. A lot of this is simply lost. Five years ago, the loss rate of IDF equipment was NIS 150 million a year. We decided to reduce this, and the equipment loss rate is now NIS 27 million a year. Unit commanders are required to take responsibility for the equipment. Commanders who continue to lose equipment are summoned for clarifications before the IDF deputy chief of staff."
The public feels that the army is spendthrift.
"The claims that we're not streamlining are not based on expertise. The IDF is streamlining exactly as the Brodet Committee demanded. The savings in money is comprehensive, and even touches on the Ministry of Defense's contract procedures with suppliers and external companies. In the past year, there were quite a few cases in which suppliers were indicted, and in other cases, the ministry terminated contracts, due to theft from the IDF. We set up Military Police undercover squads, which monitored civilian food suppliers to IDF bases, and who simply stole supplies.
"There's also been a revolution in construction. A commander can no longer decide on the construction of an administrative building when at the same time he is urgently building infrastructures critical for his unit's operations. No more offices for commanders will be built instead of a necessary observation post or field operations command post. The chaos is over: we've switched from decentralized procedures to centralized procedures."
The Ministry of Finance's demand for deep defense budget cuts pushed the IDF commanders into a corner, and they quickly established a united front in the media battle with a slew of threats about the cancellation of procurement plans ranging from life-saving equipment through the Merkava Mark IV tank. They were allied in the campaign with scores of manufacturers and enterprise owners in the periphery who cried out that shutting down the Merkava program would ruin their businesses and cost hundreds of jobs in low technology industries which survive on orders for components for the tank.
Meanwhile, its business as usual, at least for 2013. "The Merkava program is included on its regular scale in next year's budget," says Wolf, but he warns against the consequences of moving production of the Leopard (Namer) armored personnel carrier (which is based on the Merkava chassis) from Israel to the US. "This has strategic consequences. I fear that we'll ultimately be tempted to move all the Leopard production lines of top the US. If production is currently proportionate there, not full, I fear that the appetite will grow and we'll lose the entire program."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 4, 2012
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