Israeli Planners Cling To Power-Projection Concept

2005-03-21

Barbara Opall-Rome, Tel Aviv

Defense News

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php? F=725366&C=mideast

Despite last year's resounding rebuff by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) General Staff, senior military officials here still harbor hopes of deploying an amphibious assault ship or long-range troop carrier capable of delivering sizable forces and all their war-fighting gear thousands of miles from Israel's borders.

Proponents of the plan, initially proposed by Vice Adm. Yedidya Ya'ari, former commander of the Israel Navy, insist Israel needs a strategic, sea-based power-projection force for the war against terrorism. Although cost and operational concerns sank the proposed 13,000-ton ship last summer, officials here say the strategic rationale for it will only grow stronger.

"We have to be ready for a new kind of terrorism that comes from overseas and from countries far from the State of Israel. It could come from a country in Africa or straight from Iran and my personal opinion is that we need to develop this new kind of strategic capability," said Maj. Gen. Yiftah Ron-Tal, commander of Israel's Ground Forces Command.

Ron-Tal on March 8 said IDF experts are continuing to evaluate an operational concept he calls "strategic raid," whereby a self-contained ground-maneuvering force and all its support elements are delivered by and supported from the sea.

"I'm not speaking about special forces. This is not like Entebbe," Ron-Tal said. Israel's 1976 rescue operation of hostages in Uganda involved multiple C-130 Hercules aircraft, commando forces and supporting equipment. "I'm speaking about having the ability to stay for a while: weeks or maybe more than that. The idea is not exactly to have a Marine Corps, but some of their basic capabilities... We're speaking about not more than a battalion or two and about 30 tanks, maybe less than that."

According to Ron-Tal, the IDF needs to plan for contingencies in which the Israel Air Force may not have the ultimate answer for new threats. "If there is a kind of organization that you can't hit from the air, then we need to be ready for this. And that means we need to begin - and this will take a long time - to plan for a new strategic capability that will balance all the services together: Navy, Ground Forces and the Air Force," he said.

Another prominent supporter of sea-based power projection is Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Israeli Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Steinitz said he would continue to encourage the IDF leadership to develop sea-based options for critical long-range missions. "We simply cannot put all our eggs in the air power basket," he said March 10.

More Practical Priorities

Vice Adm. David Ben-Bashat, Ya'ari's successor as commander of the Israel Navy, declined to be interviewed for this report. However, close associates of the new Navy chief said Ben-Bashat, while still supportive of the sea-based power-projection concept, has elected to champion other, more practical modernization priorities, beginning with the acquisition of two additional Dolphin-class submarines.

In parallel, Ben-Bashat and the Navy staff are examining the possibility of joining the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship or the U.S. Coast Guard's Offshore Patrol Cutter programs. In a meeting early last summer, the IDF General Staff reaffirmed the Navy's requirement for new combat ships and earmarked several hundred million dollars, beginning in 2008 or 2009, for the acquisition.

In the meantime, however, the service plans to award feasibility and design studies to U.S. and local industry to help determine which platform solution and related combat systems can best meet emerging naval requirements. "The basic idea is to join one of the American programs so that most of the acquisition costs can be funded with U.S. aid money," said an Israeli industry source.

To this end, Ben-Bashat and members of his staff will visit the United States later this month to discuss both programs with respective heads of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, industry executives and shipyard specialists, sources here said.

"First he needs permission from the Americans to gain some insight into the projects, and then when he has enough details in hand, he can build a schedule for deciding on a solution," another Israeli industry source said March 15.

A Matter of Proportion

As for hopes here of reviving the amphibious assault ship or an alternative long-range platform to ferry troops and equipment for strategic raids, a very senior official on the IDF General Staff said he remains skeptical.

The official acknowledged March 8 that the threat from global terrorism could, in the future, require operations at long distances with battalion-sized forces. However, he said transporting such a force by surface vessel was extremely problematic.

"I can't see a situation where you can send an Israeli boat, with a battalion on board, for a two-week trip on the high seas, and nobody in the world would know about it. Satellites are orbiting; other platforms are loitering and you cannot assume you can hide yourself for a long time," the senior official said. "And where would you land? In an open harbor?"

The senior IDF official said insertion of such a force would need to be done quickly, an operational imperative that points more in the direction of air power than sea power. "There are a lot of unanswered questions. I'm not saying that an advanced, modern military should not want to have these capabilities, but it's a question of priorities and proportion," he said.

Ron-Tal conceded myriad practical and operational problems associated with the strategic raid concept, yet said: "When you think about the future and about designing the force, you don't have to be limited by specific scenarios and operational details. What's important in the early stages is to understand that we're very likely to face this new kind of threat and then to think in new directions about developing such a capability."

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis