The IDF is moving from threats to action. In response to the NIS 3 billion defense budget cut, the IDF has cancelled the call-up of scores of reserve units for prescheduled tours of operational duty and canceled training for a large part of regular army units. IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Ganz presented the detailed cutback plan to the General Staff on Monday.
Operational duty includes patrolling the borders and Arab towns and villages in the West Bank, and protecting Jewish settlements.
The IDF General Staff cancelled the call-up of 70 reserve battalions, scheduled for the coming months, including four battalions due to be called up within weeks. The battalions were scheduled to take tours of operational duty under the IDF annual roster of tours. The IDF says that the suspension of these operations will last at least through the end of 2013, and that it will give priority to training tours scheduled for infantry and armored units in order to maintain a reasonable level of combat skills.
IDF sources believe that the cancellation of operational tours of duty by dozens of reservist battalions in the coming months will save several hundred million shekels. The plan to adjust the IDF operations to the new budget also includes the cancellation of all previously scheduled corps-level exercises, including the cancellation of a major Navy exercise and an exercise in Central Command (which covers Central Israel and the West Bank).
Extensive cutbacks will also be made in the coming months in the training of regular army units in the Engineering Corps, Home Front Command, and the Artillery Corps. These units will only undergo basic training in the coming months. The IDF says that the training schedule of regular infantry units will also be cancelled for the coming weeks. The regular army units will carry out operational duty originally scheduled to be carried out by reservist battalions, whose call-up has been cancelled.
Educational and recreational events at many IDF units, including Cultural Sunday events and tours to sites where soldiers pay the entrance fee, will be sharply curtailed.
When the government decided to cut the defense budget, the IDF reopened discussions on its next five-year plan. The discussions will determine the fate of procurements and force building plans to counter the threats map. IDF sources said that when the changes in the multiyear plan to meet the new budget come into effect, some brigades may be disbanded. This could result in rethinking procurements of new weapons and combat systems.
Despite previous threats, the procurement plan for Iron Dome anti-missile batteries will not be affected, but the pace of deployment of the David's Sling intermediate-range ballistic missile interceptor system may be slowed.
At the same time, the IDF is reducing the number of career NCO and officer positions by 4,000 over the next two years. IDF sources say that the Manpower Directorate was considering cutting more positions, and avoid hiring new career officers and NCOs to replace those who will retire or fired in the coming years.
The IDF says that cancelling training exercises and operational tours by reservists will save money immediately, because the rest of the defense budget is rigid.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 5, 2013
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