Defense Ministry completes initial tests on updates for IDF armored vehicles

The Defense Ministry completes initial testing on a number of systems and concepts that it plans to install in the military’s armored vehicle — both current and future models — as part of its Carmel tank program.

Some of these will be implemented in the short term, including a high-tech helmet known as Iron Vision, which will be rolled out shortly for the latest version of the Merkava tank, while others will be potentially be used further down the line, a Defense Ministry spokesperson says.

The ministry first launched the Carmel project three years ago. It was initially aimed at creating a new model of tank for the Israel Defense Forces. However, this scope has broadened and changed in the interim years and looks instead to develop new technologies to be used in the military’s current armored vehicles, while still retaining the possibility of producing an entirely new variety of tank, the spokesperson says.

As part of this program, the Defense Ministry gave three defense contractors — Elbit, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries — the task of testing the feasibility of a closed tank that is operated by only two soldiers, instead of the current four, and encouraged them to integrate as many “automatic and autonomous systems as possible,” the ministry spokesperson says.

The three contractors’ prototypes have undergone testing over the past month, which ended Sunday, with a demonstration attended by a number of Defense Ministry and IDF officials, as well as some representatives from the United States military. Each of the companies man completed the challenge in a slightly different way, using proprietary systems that give the soldiers inside better situational awareness, as well as assistance from artificial intelligence.

The Defense Ministry says it is also working to develop “hybrid propulsion, cyber defense, active camouflage, multi-task radar, a system to identify troops, and more” as part of its Carmel program.

— Judah Ari Gross