IDF officers simulate war with Hezbollah
As the IDF transitions to a more connected and digitized military as part of the “Momentum” multiyear plan, hundreds of officers have completed several brigade and battalion exercises using simulators rather than drills in the field.
Officers from the 401st Armored Brigade as well as from the Givati and Nahal infantry brigades were training when The Jerusalem Post visited IDF Training Command Headquarters at the Julis base near Ashkelon this week to watch as they virtually trained for a future war with Hezbollah.
“It’s like a videogame, but these are real places where troops and officers might go,” said Col. Eliav Elbaz, commander of the brigade’s training base.
Officers experience fighting in simulated urban terrain similar to that of Lebanon, complete with the street they might find themselves walking down and the mosque they might pass when in a village in southern Lebanon, he said.
The latest drill, which ended Thursday, took place over the course of one week, with five fights simulated over the course of four hours followed by a two-hour debriefing.
Keeping with coronavirus restrictions, officers were divided into capsules in different rooms. Platoon leaders and company commanders were in one room, and officers of the Forward Deployed Brigade Headquarters were in another.
The officers train on Elbit System’s B2MTC (Brigade and Battlegroup Mission Training Center), which according to the company provides a “realistic operational picture, enables them to operate a range of assets, compels them to respond to real-time changes and requires them to cope with tactical communications that are realistically impacted by various effec
