The Israeli military completes a massive exercise simulating war against the Hezbollah terror group — its largest drill in two years — in a first test of army chief Aviv Kohavi’s new strategy for the Israel Defense Forces.
The five-day drill began on Sunday, with ground troops, the air force and navy taking part in the exercise, which included fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously.
“The exercise trained the troops for combat involving multiple branches of the military in an urban battlefield, against an enemy that disappears, who is dug into underground [infrastructure] and is equipped with advanced weaponry,” the army says in a statement.
Thousands of infantry soldiers participated in the exercise — dubbed “First Harvest” — along with armored units and other ground forces; drones, helicopters and fighter jets conducted both night and day flights during the drill; and a number of naval vessels and units simulated the type of fighting they’re likely to face in a war in Lebanon.
Israeli soldiers participate in a large-scale exercise simulating warfare against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, in June 2019. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF says a number of new capabilities and strategies that are part of Kohavi’s multi-year plan were tested in the exercise, including new offensive and defensive maneuvering techniques, better use of special forces, improved artillery fire and the widespread use of large and small drones.
The military said this was its largest drill since the 2017 “Light of the Grain” exercise, which was itself the IDF’s largest exercise in nearly 20 years.
In addition to offensive maneuvers, the military says it also simulated “large-scale rocket fire” that air defense units “would have to spot and intercept.” Hezbollah is believed to possess an arsenal of over 100,000 rockets and mortar shells, as well as a small number of advanced precision-guided missiles.
The Israeli military believes that thousands of these projectiles of various ranges and explosive capabilities would rain down on the country during a future war. Most of these inaccurate rockets would land in open fields, but the overwhelming number of them would cause significant amounts of damage, injuries and deaths throughout Israel, including potentially in key strategic sites.
— Judah Ari Gross
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