The IDF's digital revolution

Haaretz ^ | Monday, August 11, 2003 Av 13, 5763 | Amnon Barzilai

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Although the Israel Defense Forces' decision of March 3, 2003, did not make waves in the public, it was indicative of an important turning point. On that date, the IDF established its C4I Directorate, which includes the spheres of communication, computers and information technology, headed by Major General Yitzhak Harel. The new directorate will lead the IDF's digital revolution.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's statement last week about the readiness to slash NIS 15 billion from the defense budget over the next five years rested primarily on the benefits the IDF will enjoy thanks to the planned communications and data systems revolution.

"Within five or six years, and with a relatively small investment of a few billion shekels," says Major General Harel, "we are capable of making a leap forward and moving the entire IDF into the world of information and communications."

In the first stage of this revolution, the IDF ground forces are supposed to be integrated into the world of communications and computers. To this end, infrastructure for communications systems will be built - first and foremost, a central command and control system. This system will be developed and built in the framework of the ground forces' digital project, which will link all the field corps - the armored corps, the infantry, the engineering corps and the artillery corps. The project, in which more than NIS 1 billion will be invested, got underway about a year ago.

In the second stage, this ground forces system will link up with the control and command systems of the intelligence corps and the air and naval forces. "This dialogue, which will be conducted over communications systems, will increase the efficiency of the military organizations," Harel says.

According to an analysis carried out by the armaments department of the Ground Forces Command, the digital revolution will lead to a saving of 30 percent in personnel and all of the IDF's fighting equipment. Together with the plan to privatize and transfer military operations to the civilian realm, the saving in manpower could amount to even more.

However, the IDF's communications revolution will be of particular significance when it comes to efficiency on the battlefield. According to Harel, "In the past, one would speak of an army that functions out of cooperations between its various arms. Today, the army has to work with a single force."

When a military unit arrives in an area in which combat is underway, it will link up to the same communications network. According to Harel's scenario, unmanned aircraft will transmit video data that includes all the information from the battlefield to the battalion commander's vehicle and then to the company commander and the attack helicopter; from there, the battalion commander will get back the picture of the target in the attack helicopter sights.

The battle picture will be broadcast back to the command posts of the battalion, the division, the corps and the command headquarters. The information and data communications network will allow a comprehensive picture of the battle to all the military units in the battle zone. And most importantly: The command and control system will allow for identifying and clearly distinguishing between friend and foe.

In several western armies, the computer and communications wing is known as C4I. The "C" stands for command, control, communications and computers, while the "I" represents intelligence or information.

The establishment of the IDF's C4I Directorate was delayed for many months because of opposition on the part of most of the members of the General Staff. They feared that the establishment of another directorate in the General Staff, at a time of budget cuts and belt-tightening, would be perceived as a luxury and a display of public insensitivity. To their surprise, the establishment of the directorate aroused only indifference.

Another question concerns the appointment of Harel to the post. Major General Harel, 46, who served in the past as the commander of the 7th Armored Brigade, has no professional training in the field of computerization and communications. Up until a few years ago, the commanders of the IDF's corps were reserve major generals; today, the corps commanders are major generals on active duty. Taking a column commander into the General Staff, as the head of a directorate, leads to confusion and illogic. Because Harel was not appointed to the General Staff in light of his professional qualifications, his appointment opens the door to the possibility of inflating the General Staff. However, the objections were withdrawn. "Today, I am getting astonishing cooperation from all the major generals," Harel says. "All of them are waiting for the directorate to present its product."

The C4I Directorate is the new incarnation of the communications, electronics and computers corps, which, during the past two decades, experienced a series of revolutions and upheavals. Brigadier General (res.) Herzl Halali, a former chief communications, electronics and computers officer, says that the structural changes the communications corps has undergone are evolutionary processes.

In the early 1980s, software houses in the framework of the center for mechanization (Mamram) were integrated into the communications corps; and in 1994, then chief of staff Ehud Barak decided on the establishment of the computerization brigade in the communications corps. Halali was appointed as the first head of the computerization brigade. For the first time in its history, the communications corps had an additional officer with the rank of brigadier, identical to that of the commander of the corps.

"The reorganization was intended to determine policies and standards for the army as a whole in the field of computerization, and to provide computerization solutions to the General Staff, the regional commands and the ground forces, excluding the air and naval forces and Military Intelligence," Halali says.

But there were exceptions. The computer units of the Personnel Directorate and the Technological and Logistics Directorate retained their independence. This was an indication of the weakness of the communications corps. And indeed, because of the lack of authority, the split between the software and computer units remained in place. The IDF's confusion during the era of the world communications revolution continued.

In 1999, a new process began. At the initiative of then chief of staff Mofaz, the communications corps was split up and lost its independence. The General Staff communications battalion, the corps' electronic warfare unit, and the operations department and armaments divisions were removed from the corps and integrated into a new brigade known as communications and computerization. The brigade was placed under the command of the then head of the Operations Directorate, Major General Dan Halutz. What was left of the communications corps was subordinated to the Technological and Logistics Directorate.

"I was chief communications officer at the time of the decision on the split," Halali says. "Of course, I didn't like the decision, to put it mildly, and I expressed my opposition to it. The split led to a lack of operational wholeness. There was no single address for the user. I argued that because of the increased importance of communications, a communications and computerization directorate should be established. The subordination to the Technological and Logistics Directorate was forced. The writing was on the wall. Because of all those changes, I did not agree to extend my service as chief communications officer. In that way, we wasted three years. But looking back, one can view what happened as trial and error. We needed the crisis in order to move forward."

In 2001, Mofaz appointed a team headed by Major General Benny Ganz, who is now GOC Northern Command, to examine the idea of establishing a computerization and communications directorate. A year later, the team recommended the establishment of the new directorate. The head of the C4I Directorate is directly subordinate to the chief of staff. Below him are two officers with the rank of brigadier general. One is Yehu Even Zahav, head of the division for communications, computerization and technology. This division is responsible, among other things, for developing command and control systems and includes the national unit for information protection, Mamram and the national communications battalion. The command and operations division, headed by Brigadier General Arnon Zuaretz, includes the main components of the communications corps, including training base 7, the planning, operations and doctrine departments, armaments for the electronic warfare unit and the General Staff's communications battalion.

"The establishment of the C4I Directorate and its representation in the General Staff is a clear statement," says Harel. "I am a partner to the IDF budgetary pie. I don't eat off of anyone else's table. If you want to advance the area of communications, invest in communications and computerization."

Harel is proud of the fact that since the directorate was established, no new personnel slots have been added. On the other hand, he does plan to transfer some of the IDF software houses into civilian hands. The IDF employs more than 2,000 software workers. In the framework of the efficiency plan, Harel estimates that the number of software workers in the IDF will decrease by more than 30 percent.

The immediate need is to bridge the gaps in the communications systems in the ground forces. Harel is talking about a gap of several years between the ground forces and the air force, the navy and the intelligence corps.

"Our digital division is equipped with outdated computers," says Harel. "They should be in a museum. Today, Magen David Adom ambulances are equipped with a data communications system that allows the crew to know the shortest route through satellite navigation, and where there are obstructions. The driver can plan a route to the destination and the shortest way back to the hospital. And in the meantime, the medical team can, during the drive, link up to the medical data base and get all the information they need about the patient to whom they are on their way, including his last ECG picture. This is shelf technology. Taxi stands have it and the Israel Police has it. The IDF doesn't have it. Why? Because the ground forces command headquarters relied on the communications corps to solve the problem. Today, the technology is already here. One has to ask the army what it wants and to carry out the adjustments and to link the IDF up into one network."

Contrary to Harel's opinion, experts in technology and communications, as well as in the defense industries, are still doubtful about the chances that the C4I Directorate will promote the digital revolution in the IDF. There are those who fear a "dictatorship" of the directorate, which will try to take over budgets intended for the development of command and control systems for the air force and the navy and transfer them to the ground forces.

According to a senior source in the defense industries, "Command and control systems for the ground forces are a problematic area and there are clashes there among many forces. Everyone wants the most advanced technology. The commanders want information, but the problem is the high cost of the project. And then it turns out that the infrastructure in Israel is always lagging behind the demands. And the work gets delayed. Commanders change and with them, the demands. Until now, they have succeeded in building command and control systems for segments of the ground forces."

Major General (res.) Professor Isaac Ben-Israel, former head of the armaments development administration in the IDF, argues that command and control systems for the ground forces will always lag behind the air force and the navy. "There is a universal difference between air and naval corps and ground forces. Building a control and command system for an armored corps of thousands of tanks is more difficult than for the navy, which has a few dozen missile ships. The same holds true with respect to the air force. The spaces in the sea and the air are wide open. On the ground, because of the topographical structure, there is no eye contact, which is elementary for creating radio communications. This is not an IDF problem. No army in the world has command and control systems for ground forces."

Harel, however, believes that within a few years, it will be possible to bridge the gap and the IDF will be able to operate as a single, integrated force. In order to bridge this gap, he says, it is necessary to integrate the ground command and control systems by means of several communications satellites that will be launched into space.

In the dispute that has erupted between the air force and the C4I Directorate over the future control of the communications satellites, the following arrangement has been reached. Harel: "According to the division that has been determined in the Operations Directorate of the General Staff, the air force will be responsible for positioning the satellites in space and operating them, but the responsibility for sharing out the usage times for the satellite will be in the hands of the C4I Directorate."

According to the plan that has been formulated, the military communications satellites will each weigh 2.5 tons - more than twice as much as the civilian communications satellite Amos I. "There is a decision to build communications satellites because the IDF has to be in space," says Harel. "The question is how to get there when there is no money."

In 2002, before the directorate was established, the development budget was millions of shekels; and some of the projects got underway. But the overall budget for the C4I Directorate in the first year of its establishment, after the budget cuts, is about half. And the question is what will happen in advance of the 2004 budget that will be decided next month.

"If we don't multiply the budget by four, we will miss a historic opportunity," says Harel. "The communications world has succeeded in developing all the products; and today, this is an area that is in a recession. This offers an extraordinary business opportunity to achieve great things with little money. The trick is to obtain the money. That's the real challenge."

Green Belt and Mountain Rose

The C4I Directorate's principal projects:

Communications infrastructure ("Green Belt") - linking IDF bases by means of a fiber optics infrastructure. Budget: NIS 700 million and another $200 billion in American defense aid. A three year project that will allow for the construction of a data transmission network among all IDF bases. Because of budgetary constraints, the project is not progressing.

Military cellular telephone ("Mountain Rose") - the cellular telephone project. Budget: NIS 350 million and another $100 million in defense aid. Chief contractor for the project: Motorola. In the first stage, the project won't provide broadband data communication. On its completion, clients will be able to use palm-held computers and tactical computers. In 2004, a partial test will be carried out. For the ground forces, the cellular system will be the first stage in their integration into the basic data communications network intended for all branches of the IDF.

Command and control system for the ground forces - the system will link the ground forces among themselves and to the other branches of the IDF. The budget: more than NIS 1 billion. Chief contractor: Elbit Systems, in conjunction with Tadiran Systems and the Rafael.

Linking static communications to satellite communications - a mini-project focused mainly on the acquisition of equipment and the establishment of an infrastructure.

Broadband data transmission in tactical communications - a feasibility survey of broadband data transfer, including color video films for the static and mobile system. The project is being led by the defense research and development administration in the Defense Ministry, with the participation of Tadiran Communications, Rafael and Elbit Systems. For the study stage, a budget of several million shekels has been allocated.