IDF unveils new response to Hezbollah drone threat
The IDF has developed a new operational response to the growing threat of drones, aiming to improve detection and interception capabilities against aerial attacks.
The IDF is preparing to deploy a new weapon in southern Lebanon to counter Hezbollah’s drone (UAV) threats.
According to a report by Kan News, the system consists of 5.56mm fragmenting ammunition compatible with the M-16 and Tavor assault rifles used by IDF soldiers in the field.
Each round contains five small steel pellets designed to increase the effective hit radius against drones by about 30 meters. The new ammunition is expected to significantly improve the chances of striking airborne targets and has previously proven effective on the battlefield during the Russia-Ukraine war.
In recent days, a delegation from the IDF Ground Forces Command traveled to the US to conduct tests of the weapon system. Following successful trials, the commander of the Ground Forces instructed the purchase of hundreds of thousands of ammunition crates from the US, which are expected to arrive in Israel next week.
The report also noted that the IDF aims to equip every soldier in relevant units with a magazine containing the special fragmenting rounds, enabling rapid fire against drones using standard personal weapons.
Alongside this procurement, additional field instructions have been issued to soldiers for dealing with drones, including the deployment of nets over buildings and military vehicles.
The combination of specialized ammunition and physical protection measures in the field is intended to reduce the effectiveness of Hezbollah’s drones in combat operations in southern Lebanon.
Cole Tomas Allen, a suspect in the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner shooting,sits in the courtroom during a hearing after being charged with attempting to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington DC (photo credit: REUTERS/Emily Goff TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Attorneys for the man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at a black-tie press gala last weekend asked a judge on Saturday to remove him from suicide precautions while in jail in Washington.
Cole Tomas Allen allegedly stormed a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25.
When he was initially booked into the jail facility on April 27, Allen was assigned a "safe cell," described as a padded room with 24-hour lockdown procedures and a requirement to wear "a vest akin to a strait jacket," according to a filing by his lawyers in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
He was then downgraded to "suicide precautions," which means Allen could still not make phone calls, receive visits from anyone aside from his legal team, or spend time outside his cell except for legal visits or showers, with an escort, the filing states. A nurse on Friday recommended those precautions be ended, but they remained in place as of a visit by one of his public defense lawyers that day, the filing states.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro points at a picture of a shotgun carried by Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in the shooting incident in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner (credit: Reuters/Kylie Cooper)
A padded room with 24-hour lockdown procedures
Allen's status "amounts to punishment" and denies him resources such as the use of a jail tablet, "which would permit him to communicate with loved ones outside of the jail," the filing states.
Allen is charged with attempted assassination, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and illegally transporting guns and ammunition across state lines. He has not yet entered a plea.
God Bless and protect the United States of America and all its people!
Lag Ba'Omer with the Jewish Amazons at the pyramids
The little known story of how in May 1942, dozens of Jewish soldiers lit a Lag Ba'Omer bonfire in the shadow of the pyramids, dancing and singing in honor of Rashbi and Jewish independence.
By Dr. Rafael Medoff
On the outskirts of Cairo, on a blistering hot afternoon in May 1942, British Army chaplain Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz ordered the driver of his military transport truck to pull over for a group of uniformed women who were hitchhiking.
"We want to go as far as the Pyramids," one of the women explained. "Her accent betrays that she is not English, and instantly I realize that they are the Jewish Palestinian A.T.S. [volunteers in the British armed forces], the first Jewish Amazons in history!," the rabbi later recalled. "With a grin, I lapse into Hebrew." (Imagine the women's surprise!) " 'I shall be very glad indeed to take you,' I say."
It would be the most remarkable Lag Ba'Omer he would ever experience.
Thirty thousand Jewish men and 4,350 Jewish women from Mandatory Palestine volunteered to serve in the British Army during World War Two. Although horrified by the British White Paper that cut off most Jewish immigration to the Holy Land, they were anxious to take part in the Allies' war effort against the Nazis.
The women served in units known as the Palestine Auxiliary Territorial Service (A.T.S.) and some were assigned to British positions in Egypt where, along with their male comrades, they played important roles in bolstering the British fight to halt General Rommel's advance across North Africa.
One of the most famous missions carried out by these Palestinian Jewish soldiers is described in the 1943 book The Forgotten Ally, by the renowned journalist (and Christian Zionist) Pierre van Paassen. Twenty soldiers who were German Jewish refugees donned German military uniforms and, with their flawless accents, managed to infiltrate Nazi lines in western Egypt. When their true identities were discovered, the saboteurs opened fire on the enemy and, according to the sole survivor, managed to kill more than one hundred Germans.
The women hitchhikers for whom Rabbi Rabinowitz stopped were on their way to meet up with comrades at the pyramids for a Lag Ba'Omer celebration. "The Galilean village of Meron [site of the most famous Lag Ba'Omer festivities] transported to Gizeh," the rabbi marveled, "and Palestinian songs and dances in the shades of the Pyramids."
They arrived to find dozens of young Jewish soldiers igniting a huge bonfire. "Round and round they danced the Horah with increasing enthusiasm and tempo," the rabbi recalled. " 'Ben Yohai!,' 'El Yivne Hagalil!', 'Anu Olim Artzah!' The flames throw the eager, laughing, joyous aces into vivid relief. From time to time, a figure would detach itself from the whirling circle, and with an ecstatic cry of triumph would leap high over the burning pile, to land safely and triumphantly on the other side."
Standing there in the silhouette of the Pyramids, Rabbi Rabinowitz was moved to offer a Dvar Torah with a message that uniquely linked past to present:
"I spoke of Bar Kochba and of Rabbi Akiva, of his disciple, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, who is so intimately connected with Lag Ba'Omer; of [Bar Kochba's] war for Jewish independence; of the long and weary exile of the Jewish people; of the significant fact that from that time we had not until the present day seen Palestinian Jews enrolled and organized to fight for the freedom of humanity and their own future."
But the connection to Pharaoh, builder of the pyramids, was even more significant, he said. Pharaoh, after all, had ordered the murder of all Jewish male babies for fear they would grow up to be soldiers who would turn against him; but he let the Jewish female babies live. "What possible military value could there be in women?," the Egyptian ruler reasoned. Surely girls posed no threat of becoming Jewish fighters. "And now, 4,000 years after," Rabbi Rabinowitz declared, "these Palestinian A.T.S. were showing, in no uncertain way, within sight of these Pyramids," that they too could fight for the Jewish nation. These "Jewish Amazons," as the rabbi proudly called them, were living proof of the failure of the enemies of the Jewish people.
"As I left them that evening," he later wrote, "my mind was filled with the vivid conviction--these mighty Pyramids will crumble to dust before the Jewish people will perish."
Israel to double its number of F-35 fighter jets with 100 new aircraft
The NIS 350 billion deal resolves the debate over which plane to invest in, resulting in a much larger budget to cover both.
Israel announced a blockbuster decision to double the size of its F-35 fleet from 50 to 100 and its new F-15IA fleet from 25 to 50.
The decision reflects a radical post-October 7 world: Israel will increase defense spending over the next 10 years by NIS 350 billion, in addition to annual defense spending that has risen from under NIS 100 billion to nearly NIS 150 billion.
If before October 7 and even mid-war there was a hot debate whether to spend Israel's limited military funds on increasing its F-35 fleet or new F-15IA fleet, after two Iran wars over the last year in which the IDF heavily using both existing F-35s and older F-15s, which need to be replaced with the new F-15IAs, the government decided to massively increase the budget in order to purchase both.
Due to the extreme expense of each of these aircraft, such a scenario had not even been imagined in the recent past.
A statement by the Defense Ministry said that the Ministerial Committee on Procurement plans to simultaneously acquire two new fighter squadrons: a fourth F-35 squadron from Lockheed Martin and a second F-15IA squadron from Boeing.
F-35
The government decided to massively increase the budget in order to purchase both
The deals, valued at tens of billions of NIS, include full fleet integration into the Israeli Air Force, comprehensive sustainment, spare parts, and logistics support.
Until now, Israel has had around 50 F-35s, with several new F-35s being delivered over the last year.
This is a major step in executing the IDF’s decade-long force buildup plan, approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under the future-focused NIS 350 billion, versus the year-to-year IDF concerns budgets.
Defense Minister Israel Katz and Director-General Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram brought the procurement before the Committee as part of the ministry’s "broader strategy to strengthen readiness ahead of a demanding decade for Israeli security. The new squadrons will serve as a cornerstone of the IDF’s long-term force development, addressing evolving regional threats and preserving Israel’s strategic air superiority."
Following the Committee’s approval, Baram directed the ministry's Mission to the US to move forward with finalizing the agreements with the American government and military counterparts in the coming period.
Katz stated, "Operation Roaring Lion once again demonstrated the Israeli Air Force’s power and its decisive role in protecting Israel. The lessons of that campaign require us to keep pressing forward on force buildup, to ensure air superiority for decades to come.
"Israel is stronger than ever, and Israel must always be much stronger than our enemies," Netanyahu said following the announcement of the deal. "Our pilots can reach anywhere in Iran's skies, and they are prepared to do so if required. We have great aircraft, and we have great pilots."
He noted that NIS 350 billion would be added to Israel's defense budget in the coming decade, in order to "ensure Israel's supremacy in all arenas."
The F-35 and F-15IA acquisitions are central to the ‘Shield of Israel’ plan, which is designed to give the IDF a lasting qualitative edge. As part of this plan, the Israeli Air Force will be expected to lead a major technological leap - integrating autonomous flight capabilities, next-generation defense systems, and establishing Israeli military dominance, both defensive and offensive, in space."
Baram said, “The approval of this procurement is the first major step in executing the 350-billion-NIS force buildup plan for an intense security decade ahead. Alongside immediate wartime procurement needs, we have a responsibility to act now to secure the IDF’s military edge ten years from now and beyond...The complementary capabilities of these two squadrons will give the Israeli Air Force the flexibility to handle a broad range of combat scenarios."
Netanyahu and outgoing Air Force Chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar both praised the move and said that this would help Israel go forward with increasing its power and independence in fighting wars.
The prime minister added a vague statement that Israel could produce its own aircraft, but his spokesman had not responded at press time on what this might mean, and Israel closed its last attempt to build its own fighter jets in the 1980s after a decade of huge financial losses.
In mid-January, the IDF announced that three F-35i aircraft had landed at Nevatim Air Force Base, purchased from US defense giant Lockheed Martin, bringing Israel's total to 48 of 50, all of which have already been purchased.
These three aircraft were part of a long-standing deal spread over several years to expand Israel's fleet from 25 to 50 F-35s.
These aircraft were originally due in late 2025 but were delayed; the last two are still due for delivery later in 2026.
But that is not the end of F-35 deliveries.
In 2023, Israel, the US government, and Lockheed Martin signed a deal for 25 additional F-35s, eventually raising the number of aircraft to 75, which will mean a third squadron. Additional steps in that process took place in mid-2024.
Previously, The Jerusalem Post was told that the first third squadron F-35 deliveries would start in 2027
Israel signed on to the F-35 program in 2010, and its F-35 program became operational in 2017.
By early 2025, the F-35 had already undertaken over 15,000 flight hours on all fronts of the war, which Israel was coping with, from Iran to Yemen to Syria to Lebanon to Gaza.
More specifically, the F-35 was Israel's key first component in eliminating Iran's best radars and air defenses in four rounds of attacks, including in the June 2025 and the 2026 Israel-Iran wars.
In addition, over the course of the war, the IDF said it modified its F-35 aircraft to fire JDAM munitions from their wings, rather than dropping them from the aircraft's belly as originally designed.
Even before the war, the F-35 was considered crucial in the MABAM “war between wars” against Iranian proxies in Syria.
It has stealth technology, which makes it better able to strike targets throughout the Middle East with impunity, and its surveillance and intelligence capabilities far exceed those of Israel’s older F-16 and F-15 aircraft.
For example, it is said to be easily capable of outwitting Iran’s S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense system, and possibly even the S-400 system, whereas other Israeli aircraft would have more trouble.
Lockheed Martin Israel's former CEO Joshua (Shiki) Shani has previously said, “We are proud to support the Israel Defense Forces in providing the F-35, and honored that the Israeli government has announced its intent to purchase additional F-35s.
“The Israel Air Force has proven its capabilities in critical operations with the 116 and 140 Squadrons, and we are looking forward to building on this strong performance. With a combination of stealth, sensor fusion, and electronic warfare, the fifth-generation F-35 will ensure the Israel Air Force stays ahead of current and evolving threats,” he said.
At the same time, Israel has made parallel advances and investments in the air force’s future.
Months ago, after years of delay, the Defense Ministry began moving forward with the purchase of 25 F-15IA Boeing fighters from the US to help replace its aging F-15 aircraft.
This latest announcement means that Israel will eventually have 50 F-15IA aircraft.
"Eventually" could mean as late as the early or mid 2030s.
According to public information, Israel has around 70 aging F-15s and over 100 F-16s.
While it is necessary to replace the F-15s sooner, given that many of them date back to the 1970s, the ministry announced in January that it would upgrade its F-16 fleet with an NIS 80 million upgrade to more advanced self-protection systems, rather than replacing them.
Purchased in the early 2000s, the F-16s were fourth-generation aircraft intended as an upgrade for Israel over the F-15s, which were purchased decades earlier.
The F-35s are Israel's fifth-generation aircraft.
Collectively, the plan appears to be to eventually have 100 F-35s, over 100 enhanced F-16s, and at least 50 newer F-15UAs, with possibly some older F-15s continuing, if they are considered able.
Separately, in November 2022, Israel finalized an agreement to purchase four Boeing KC-46A midair-refueling aircraft.
Each of those new aircraft elements is also some years from being delivered to Israel, but would also eventually boost Jerusalem’s capability for attacking Tehran and other adversaries.
Israel as a force and dollar multiplier for the US.
Israeli Navy Seals
By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger,author of “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative"
Against the backdrop of the current war against the Ayatollah regime, US-Israel joint drills have highlighted the immense cooperation and mutual respect between the US’ Navy Seals and its Israeli counterpart Shayetet 13 - both specializing in pre-emptive operation beyond enemy lines - enhancing battle tactics of both units.
The U.S. and Israeli Navies conduct frequent joint exercises, such as the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) and Intrinsic Defender, leveraging each other’s experience in mine neutralization, search and rescue, medical emergencies at sea, maritime interdiction, rapid response, counter-terrorism and integration of women.
The existing threat of Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, highlights the mutually-beneficial collaboration between the US and Israeli Navies. This collaboration has leveraged Israel’s uniquely intense naval battle experience in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea (Northern Indian Ocean) and the Persian Gulf. This collaboration has highlighted the mutually-beneficial joint exercises and Israel’s capabilities in the areas of intelligence gathering, naval commando, joint exercises, mine detection and mine clearance operations.
For example, during the January 1991 First Gulf War, the US and Israel collaborated in naval mine-clearing, which consisted of specialized Israeli mine plows and intelligence, which enhanced the effectiveness of coalition naval operations against Iraqi mine threats in the Persian Gulf. Israel supplied other critical technologies, including night-vision goggles and a low-altitude warning system for helicopters. Israeli military intelligence, highly focused on Iraq, also provided detailed tactical information to the U.S. about Iraqi military activities.
The Israeli Navy has acquired substantial combat experience - shared with the US Navy - and is frequently involved in high-threat environments and asymmetric warfare, as well as in the areas of the Israeli developed and manufactured unmanned maritime vessels (UMV) - also known as unmanned surface vessels (USV) - and unmanned intelligence submarines.
Israel’s Underwater Missions Unit and the US Fifth Fleet collaborate in tactical training on topics like underwater search, mine removal, and underwater medical emergencies. Thus, they have boosted each side’s tactical capabilities in a joint attempt to pre-empt and counter terrorism, as well as curtail China’s maneouverability in the Middle East and adjacent regions.
Israel’s Navy has demonstrated its potential, when assaulting energy infrastructure of the Ayatollah’s proxy, Houthi terrorists, some 1,300 miles from Israel’s shores. The Houthis have terrorized a major intersection of international commercial shipping lanes between the Far East and the Mediterranean, in addition to launching ballistic missiles and predator UAVs at Israel.
The Bottom Line
*The Israeli Navy’s multi-theatre and uniquely-intense combat experience has served as a cost-effective battle-tested laboratory, an innovation center and a research and development center for the US Navy, as have Israel’s Air Force, armored units, counter-terrorism units, urban warfare units and military medical units been for their US counterparts.
*The Israeli experience has yielded many upgrades for the US defense industries and its products, saving the US mega-billions of dollars in research and development cost. Thus, enhancing US competitiveness in the global market, increasing US exports, expanding US employment and generating more income tax revenues to the US Treasury.
*The US-Israel naval close cooperation has highlighted the reality of the mutually-beneficial two-way-street of cooperation between the US and Israel.
IDF's AI unit transformed air force effectiveness in Iran war
Col. Rotem Beshi, was commander of an IDF unit responsible for integrating and relaying artificial intelligence across the military
Matzpen, the IDF unit most responsible for integrating and relaying artificial intelligence and “big data” intelligence across the military, played a critical role in transforming the air force’s effectiveness during the recent war with Iran, its commander, Col. Rotem Beshi, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
A new system managed by Matzpen, known as the LOCHEM system, handled all the planning for attacks on Iran, starting with working with the air force’s special, relatively new Iran unit, said Beshi, 38.
According to Beshi, during the war, Matzpen’s digital applications and processes “helped decide priorities and helped integrate the planning of whole waves of attacks.”
He said that gathering certain data to make operational decisions, which used to take days, can be done in hours, or in some cases, minutes, and that Matzpen is pushing to get nearly all the processes that connect to emergent situations down to minutes.
Part of this process was sped up by the formation of a brigade-sized IDF unit, announced in December, to address the spread of artificial intelligence use across the military, including the Matzpen unit.
A technologist with the Israeli military's Matzpen operational data and applications unit works at her station, at an IDF base in Ramat Gan, Israel. (credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS)
All of these units are part of the Communications and Cyber Defense Command, headed by Maj.-Gen. Aviad Dagan.
Matzpen could be working on a couple of dozen new applications at a time to improve the military’s offensive and defensive capacities.
The work is integral to all of the military’s major successes
If in the recent past, developing complex new applications to confront new challenges took months or years, now the military develops new programs much more rapidly.
Overall, Beshi’s goal is for IDF field commanders to feel they are dealing with a familiar, user-friendly technological world that empowers them to better carry out the war’s strategy and tactics. In contrast, new technologies that are confusing to use could unintentionally slow them down with having to learn too many new skills.
Later, Beshi, who has two degrees in computer science, a master’s degree in technology and systems management, and a certification as a chief data officer (CDO) from MIT, stated that data is transmitted across all major commands, including the northern, southern, and central commands.
All of this significantly helps planning and fundamentally alters military processes, noted Beshi, who for around 20 years served in various roles in the Communications Command, including what was once known as the LOTEM Brigade, which has now been absorbed into the new AI-focused brigade.
The IDF Spokesman credited Beshi’s work “with being integral to all of the military’s major successes” during the recent war, which wasn’t the first time his work has been recognized. In 2017, Beshi was selected by Forbes magazine for its 30 Under 30 list.
In a sense, one of Beshi’s jobs has been to help the IDF and many senior commanders across a variety of fronts transform from a technology-friendly army into a supercharged technology military.
Beshi was asked to provide specific examples of how the new system affected target prioritization for the 2,600 Iranian military-industrial targets and 2,200 regime-strength targets (as other IDF sources have revealed), but declined to disclose the specific numbers to avoid endangering operational security.
Instead, Beshi spoke more generally about the comprehensive capabilities that Matzpen enables for the IDF, such as its tight integration with operational and intelligence processes.
Describing Matzpen’s impact step by step for targeting during the war, Beshi stated that, “the intelligence process finds a target, then you move to operational processes and then to concrete planning, approval, and the actual attack.
“Next, there is the BDA [battle damage assessment] process. We are partners to connect the intelligence and the operations, sending data into and out from field operations closest to the front,” Beshi commented.
All of this could lead to different Matzpen data processes for the air force targeting Iranian ballistic missile threats versus its targeting the IRGC and Basij forces used to oppress domestic Iranian protesters, though how it was done was kept classified.
It also allows the air force and IDF intelligence to integrate targets much more effectively and faster into the overall targeting plan.
During the war, which played out on both the Iranian and Lebanese fronts, Beshi said Matzpen’s creative, cutting-edge data streaming facilitated “quickly changing plans and maximized operational flexibility.”
This could include influencing “the trajectory of an aircraft so as to focus on certain targets more than others. This keeps the attacks streaming much more fluidly for specific targets.”
Another unique aspect of Matzpen during the recent Iran war was the impact on the scale of information sharing with the US.
IDF sources have previously told the Post that there were senior American officers in several Israeli classified operations rooms to advance joint coordinated attacks between the countries against Iran in real time.
Without giving specifics, Beshi noted that, “To fully exploit the data, there was a joint picture with the US.”
Matzpen helps radically increase the IDF Home Front’s safety promotion capabilities:
During the Iran war, the impact of air force attacks on Iran and of Israel’s vast number of sensors and surveillance relaying data via Matzpen to the IDF Home Front Command helped it prepare and issue much faster warnings.
This allowed the command to plan much more in advance and to even make more life-saving or routine protective adjustments in real time, said Beshi.
Beshi revealed that in the months between the June 2025 Iran war and the 2026 war, the IDF Home Front, working with Matzpen, overhauled many processes for establishing the coordinates of an Iranian attack and for getting that data interactively to the police, Magen David Adom, and the broader civilian population.
This facilitates the full exploitation of the information needed to connect the offensive and defensive sides of the IDF, Beshi remarked.
These new Matzpen data processes empowered the IDF to know where all Home Front Command forces are, to best direct them to the ideal spot.
Another Matzpen application, which Beshi referred to as “Binah” (insight), coordinated the positioning and capacities of all local village security teams and their commanding security coordinator.
Matzpen has also performed joint big data AI research with IDF Intelligence, the air force, and the home front district units to make it possible to reduce the size of the potential target elliptical area within Israel, referred to as “the polygon,” which needed to receive warnings, Beshi noted.
This made warnings and responses more focused, “reducing the disruption of everyday life routines from receiving a missile warning, to more specific residential areas. It is a very advanced integration of different kinds of digital media with AI,” he said.
For example, initial warnings at the start of the war for a potential Iranian ballistic missile hit covered a polygon of two million people, but eventually this was reduced to 900,000 people, and, in some cases, even fewer.
Lebanon
Besides the home front, Matzpen helps with the process of conveying warnings to IDF forces invading and otherwise maneuvering within southern Lebanon.
Beshi said there are “tons of sensors to analyze the potential of very diverse threats,” including rockets, anti-tank missiles, and low-flying drones. He said that other threats were not by sensors, but by analyzing video footage of threats taken by human beings.
In Lebanon, as with Iran, Matzpen’s partnership with the air force has been very important. Combined with ground force sensors, Matzpen has painted an incredibly detailed real-time threat picture for the Northern Command to respond to and shape.
As with the home front, Beshi said Matzpen has “used highly complex algorithms to increase its ability to give targeted warnings only to the clearly targeted IDF forces” in a specific locality of southern Lebanon so as not to disrupt the operations and progress of other military forces.
Recently, Matzpen added new digital infrastructure to expand its capacity to issue certain warnings on radio frequencies.
Matzpen has also improved at dissecting multiple diverse geographic threats and issuing different kinds of warnings for them, Beshi noted, such as when Iran and Hezbollah both attacked portions of northern Israel with different kinds of weapons at the same time.
Beshi said that the data they relay in such instances is “robust and at very high quality and scale.”
That said, Beshi said that Matzpen is always seeking to add more sensors, devices, applications, and digital infrastructure to maximize the IDF’s broader capabilities.
Beshi gave an example in late March when a Hezbollah fighter fired an anti-tank missile toward IDF troops in southern Lebanon and, via a Matzpen application, those forces were warned within two seconds of the impending threat. This “gave them enough time to get to a protected stance. We were pleased that there was no harm to those forces.”
MAPIT
Matzpen’s program, MAPIT, works with satellites, including with IDF Unit 9900, which handles satellite information, and part of its work was acknowledged during the war, when, on March 16, a senior 9900 official made a public statement following strikes against Iran’s satellite launch center and its center for attacking other countries’ satellites.
MAPIT is part of the IDF’s apparatus for the intake of operational geographic media and sharing that data with different defense establishment entities. It integrates AI and moves information that has been received onto a digital map.
“If a report comes in about a threat to Beersheba or Haifa, MAPIT takes the data or the text, such as a video of a ballistic missile with a large impact destruction area,” said Beshi.
“It categorizes where the data is from and then pulls it up on a digital map. It has huge data capacities, which multiply the use of big data power. Being connected is the story.”
Another issue where Matzpen’s big data and programming abilities have helped is to reduce friendly fire incidents.
Matzpen’s applications already help map out friendly forces so precisely that, while accidents still happen, usually it is not because soldiers did not know where other units were located.
Instead, friendly fire incidents have occurred more often where soldiers are pinned down so badly that they lack the time and space to physically interface properly with the available data.
Broad focus
“The IDF is in the process of a major revitalization of its management of AI, data, and media for operations,” Beshi explained.
Next, he stated, “We receive and absorb operational reports from around the world, on every front, including open source data, to build a platform that serves as a mosaic of information.
“We were not starting from zero, but the IDF understood, like any large business or entity, what the value is of its data. The value of AI and big data, if the data is closed off and inaccessible to groups of people who might need it, compared to different kinds of data storage clouds, which might make it more accessible, can change and directly impact the real-world military front lines.”
In recent months, Beshi has felt that Matzpen has been even more at the center of gravity of the IDF’s operations.
He noted that Matzpen is different from any other data manager in the IDF, as it operates across all lines and arms of the military, whereas each military arm also has its own smaller data managers who focus on specific needs, such as the air force or the navy.
Beshi concluded that Matzpen “increases the value of data for the IDF.”
