The conference held at Bar-Ilan University focused on four main topics: strategy and thinking directions for building the future land force; Future Power Building Based on Artificial Intelligence; the place of the unmanned in the future power building; and the industrial angle in the power building
A series of generals at the General Staff, academic researchers and industry executives, participated in December 2022, in a conference initiated by the IDF Land Warfare Research Institute, on the subject of the future battlefield. The conference held at Bar-Ilan University focused on four main topics: strategy and thinking directions for building the future land force; Building future power based on artificial intelligence, vision and reality; the place of the unmanned in the future power building; and the industrial angle in the power building.
Major General Sa'ar Tzur, commander of the Northern Maneuver and Geiss formation, stated at the conference that the State of Israel is at the threshold of a change: from a battlefield to a battlefield. "As part of this concept, we are no longer fighting in two dimensions - ground and air - but in all dimensions, in a complete battle space, and we are learning how to conduct ourselves within this space."
Major Tamir Yedai, commander of the land arm, explained that building a force is a long and complex process, as he tries to predict the future. "And in our environment it is all the more complex due to the changing threats, geo-strategic processes, changes in Israeli society and exponential changes in technology."
"Any discussion trying to predict what the future battlefield will look like is appropriate and important," added Yedai, "this type of discussion is better done from learning from processes we have carried out in the past and also from trying to predict what the future will look like. We need to know how to strike a good balance between vision and reality, especially when it comes to the land army, because any idea or solution should be one that meets the unique characteristics of the IDF in general and the land army in particular, including the nature and duration of service, the size of the land, the reserve forces and more."
Prof. Aryeh Tsavan, president of Bar-Ilan University, said at the conference that the future fighter will need a degree in computer science. "We as a university are here to train him. Just as we adapt ourselves today to the needs of the high-tech industry, we will also be able to train the warriors of the future." Dr. Eitan Shamir, a military historian who heads the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, spoke at the conference about the building of the force in a historical perspective, Prof. Noa Agmon, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science, exposed the participants to the latest developments in the field of robots for the future battlefield, Prof. Doron Orbach, who heads The Center for Energy and Sustainability at the university told about energy storage as part of the power building. Dr. Ido Hecht and Lt. Gen. Gershon HaCohen, both researchers from the Begin-Sadat Center, also participated in the conference.
