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| By Ynetnews February 21, 2007 |
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For the first time in six years, an entire IDF brigade conducted full-blown war games.
During the last couple of weeks, battalions from the Paratroopers Brigade conducted military exercises in preparation for the brigade drill.
They worked with full cooperation between the air force and the artillery, armor and engineering corps, implementing the lessons learned from last summer's war in Lebanon.
"The war games are tougher than the war," one officer told Ynet. "It is very hard on the troops, on junior officers as well as soldiers, who have never participated in such large scale exercises.
"Their conduct was good in the last war. Next time they will be exceptional," he added.
Despite the soldiers' commendable performance during the war when they were face-to-face with Hizbullah, it was evident that they were not prepared for genuine combat.
Consequently, the regular army brigades started preliminary exercises a few weeks ago and last week, the full-blown brigade drill took place -- the first such drill since 2000.
The troops had to deal with complex tasks while advancing dozens of kilometers a day.
High-ranking reserve officers, who had participated in Israeli wars themselves, participated in the drill as supervisors and to coach the troops.
Before the drill started, one of the platoon commanders said that he was worried that his soldiers wouldn't make it. However, despite the hardships and fatigue, military officials said that the troops operated much better than they did in the war.
Reprinted with permission from Ynetnews. |
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