IDF drills for a winter war with Hezbollah
In the middle of two harsh winter storms, the IDF’s 74th Armored Battalion conducted a large-scale drill and significantly improved its ability to go towar against Hezbollah.
The five-day exercise saw troops simulate combat against the Iran-backed terror group after a three-month training period in the Golan. The drill saw them practice combat methods in rocky terrain and in urban centers where soldiers will have to battle the group.
“The drill was long and complicated, with a number of technical operations that we worked on,” said Lt.-Col. Ofer Tchorz, commander of the 74th battalion, a part of the 188th Armored Brigade.
The challenges posed by the Israeli winter such as cold temperatures and rain, as well as challenges posed by the communication between maneuvering units are a central part of the drill that troops are training on.
“The summer doesn’t influence tanks, but winter takes the drill to the next level,” he said, explaining that some of the tanks got stuck in the mud during the drill, needing to be removed by engineering platforms.
Having to carry out the drill during bad weather showed troops how to deal with the added challenges posed by such conditions should war break out with Hezbollah in the winter, Tchorz explained.
“We are preparing for war with Hezbollah in all weather conditions.”
Eyes on Hezbollah and the cold North
The IDF has been training in Israel’s Golan Heights for another war with Hezbollah, which over the years since the Second Lebanon War has morphed into an army with more advanced weaponry, is more mobile, able to draft large numbers of fighters and deploy them quickly in enemy territory.
Hezbollah has been described by senior military officers as the strongest army in the Middle East after the IDF.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a deadly 33-day war in 2006, which came to an end under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that called for the disarmament of Hezbollah, withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanon, the deployment of the Lebanese army and an enlarged UN force in the South.
The challenges of war with Hezbollah
The IDF expects that in any future conflict, whether it be against Hezbollah in the North or Hamas in the South, soldiers will have to fight their heavily armed enemies entrenched in the middle of built-up civilian areas.
Troops will need to conquer enemy territory and destroy its weapons stores – especially rocket launchers, in order to minimize the number of missiles and rockets the enemy can fire at the home front.
According to Tchorz, the main challenges facing troops who will need to enter Lebanon are the hilly terrain and an enemy who fights from within residential areas and tries to hit IDF forces from there.
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