Ahead of the ILA conference taking place this week, Yossi the Toni, author of "People and Computers" interviewed Major General (res.) Prof. Yitzhak Ben-Israel - former head of Mafat
Yossi the Tony
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Major General (res.) Prof. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, former head of the Ministry of Defense - Research and Development of Warfare Means and Technological Infrastructure, reveals the reasons for the defeat of the US Army in the Gulf War: the IT systems, which transferred intelligence and operational information to the forces * About satellite-guided weapons missiles - GPS * How and where were born cell phones (with a military investment of $10 billion) and computer games * When will information security be hack-proof * Ben Israel participates in the Ila conference
"The name of the game is control and control, SHOB, along with handling the information processed by the IT systems, will be prioritized and streamed in real time," Major General (respondent) Prof. Yitzhak Ben Israel tells InformationWeek. In the interview, he refers to the similarities and differences in IT in the military and the civilian industry. Prof. Ben Israel, head of the security studies program at Tel Aviv University, predicts that information security systems will be immune to hacking in a decade. He will lecture at the Ila conference on "the IT battlefield", IT systems in the army, SHOB and real-time information flow.
General (res.) Prof. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, how do the IT systems deal with the huge amounts of stored information?
"The fact that there is a lot of information around us is an axiom. Computers can and do help us organize the information. The IT systems provide us with the technological capabilities to group it, process it, and present it to consumers in a faster way. All of this helps to run an organization in a civilian way more economically, or in war, to make the army act better."
What was the uniqueness of the second Gulf War?
"During the first Gulf War, in 1991, there were no information management systems to help manage the war. There were combined operations, of air-land battles. On the other hand, in the last Gulf War, the IT systems were unified, there were operations-intelligence cells, which were managed with the help of computers, and the information flowed in real time.
The fighting method also changed - and was mainly based on the ability of HMMs, precision guided weapons, to destroy targets in a massive way. A week from the beginning of the war, when the allied forces arrived in Karbala, 100 km from Baghdad, they stopped, and activated the IT systems perfectly: they realized a precise attack capability, with a stand-off weapon (on the other hand), whose range is greater than the range of the defense, and is capable of striking Spotted, PGM. For the homing warhead of a TV camera, with a point accuracy of half a meter. This, without the other side having a chance to strike back.
Despite the numerical superiority that the Iraqis had on land, what was decisive was the technological superiority of the US: IT systems that streamed operational and intelligence information in real time, air superiority, intelligence satellites, cruise missiles and precision weapons, for operation in any weather and in any visibility conditions. All systems were computer-based."
Extensive use of GPS
And how did the satellite navigation systems help?
"The divisions of the Republic Guard, stationed outside Baghdad, stood and served as 'duck targets'. Here, IT-based intelligence-operations work was done: aerial photographs were combined with intelligence information received from a multitude of sensors, which defined the targets and their exact location. When the bombing planes took off, the coordinates of the bombing location were already entered in the content, 'the address was written on the bomb'. The bomb 'talked' to the satellites, and hit the Iraqi tanks.
The main use was JDAM bombs, with each bomber - 20 bombs, with 'addresses' to the targets. Thus, in a few days, thousands of targets were destroyed. The uniqueness of the bombs is that they can be navigated to the N.C., to the point of reference, with special satellites that orbit the earth, GPS. A receiver was added to each bomb, which received transmitted signals from the GPS satellites. By processing these signals, the bomb 'knew' its location, and hit exactly 'her' tank."
What was the part of the IT systems?
"In HMM, there are three elements: the guided armament itself, for example guided by satellites; The intelligence system for the purposes - who harms, who is harmed, who is not, what is important - to prioritize, and where. And most importantly, this is the system that connects them: the SHOB system, C4I, acronyms in English for control, control, communication, computers and intelligence. The information collected by the sensors is prioritized, processed, creates a picture of targets, and is transmitted to the air forces. It needs to be in real time, because the picture changes all the time - tanks are a thing that moves. Here is the criticality of the IT systems: they are required to identify the important targets, locate them, and quickly send them to the forces. The component of information processing - is the main component.
This is what was new in the war: the information processing systems of the IT were unified, and the information did flow in almost real time to the level of the attackers. This was the heart of the matter - control and control, the processing of information and its distribution quickly."
What other aspects are there in IT-based warfare?
"In the American military, the future battlefield is discussed a lot. There are four layers in this combat thinking: the first is the ability to strike accurately, the HMM. The second element is the use of space. There are two types of satellites in space, photography satellites for intelligence purposes, and no less important - communication satellites. The future battlefield is characterized by long ranges, it is impossible to communicate from point to point except through the satellite. There are also sensors in space that warn of missiles as soon as they are launched.
The third element is information warfare. Computer warfare is a special case of information warfare. War is information manipulation, you obtain information about the enemy, prevent the release of information about yourself, and release desired information to the mass media. Whoever does this best, is the winner of the war. In all of this, an important aspect is the processing of all information in computers, and the ability to store it and distribute it to the relevant parties. Today there is no weapon without a computer. There is not a single tank on land, plane in the air or naval vessel without computers, and certainly all guided missiles have a computer.
The fourth element is maneuver control. The view should be from above. There should be an accurate attack ability so that the other side will not have the ability to move, he will be chained to his place. The whole purpose of the IT systems is to serve the 'pure' operational matters, the purpose of the IT systems is to turn the information into a strategic asset, so that the side that controls the information, is the winner of the battle".
Military-civilian cooperation
From your point of view, as someone who has been on the side of the supplier (head of MFAAT) and the consumer (army), what is the level of cooperation in the IT industry between the army and civilians?
"There is a huge space between the size of the investment and the effort, and the final result. The basic investment in technology, in IT, costs billions, and is therefore only done at the invitation of governments, security institutions. The free, civil market will not invest billions of dollars in projects that last for ten years. He cannot afford not to see a return on investment, within two years at the latest. The only body that is willing to invest fantastic, huge investments are the security institutions. After a product is released, it undergoes upgrades, improvements and, of course, changes and adjustments, so that the benefits developed can be utilized for the benefit of the civilian market.
The route is always the same: military need, response, technological solution, and 'surfing' to citizenship. The Internet network also began as something military, as a concept of two computers that 'talk' to each other. It was in 1969, when the research agency of the US Department of Defense, ARPA, Advanced Research Project Agency, decided to establish an operational computer network, which would be used by the High Command to transmit messages during a nuclear missile attack on America, if the radio and television stations were damaged. The idea was to establish a non-hierarchical network, so that it could survive if physically harmed. As early as 1970, the network served the Pentagon as well as researchers at US universities. This is an example of the transition of a product, a service, which was originally intended to be for a military purpose, to citizenship - today hundreds of millions in the world use the Internet.
Sometimes, a little, there is a reverse flow, from citizenship to the army: the ERP system for example, since there is no difference between the logistics of an army and a civilian enterprise. Here, I see the important role of Ila, which will communicate between the civilian and military IT worlds, to create collaborations that all parties will benefit from. As the head of MPAAT, (research and development of means of warfare and technological infrastructure) in the Ministry of Defense, I dealt with this quite a bit.
Mapat is a joint body of the Ministry of Defense and the IDF, whose mission is to develop the security technology needed by the IDF and the defense system. Hundreds of scientists work at the MPA, who are supposed to provide the answer to Israel's future battlefield. The entire rationale for development at MPA is in the direction of high-tech, since most of the development resources are invested in areas such as electronic warfare and sensors of all kinds. These are computer-intensive fields. These computer-intensive systems are characterized by several aspects: they must be small to tiny, they must not consume a lot of electricity, they must be cool and tough, since military equipment takes hits. All means of warfare must be developed to meet these needs, in order for the systems to work on the battlefield."
$10 billion in mobile without silicon
Give an example of the transition of a military product to citizenship.
"The cell phone. It was originally intended to be a sophisticated walkie-talkie. Military personnel told development personnel that they needed a phone. Only at a later stage did it become a civilian product, which billions use today.
Due to the density of cellular phones, it is necessary to increase the frequencies. The mobile phones are full of chips, which are not able to work at high frequencies in silicon. In the late 80s, the US government invested an amount of 10 billion dollars to transfer the technology from silicon (iron) to that of gallium arsenide (GaAs), a semi-conducting material, similar in its properties to silicon, and capable of working at high frequencies, where silicon cannot work. This saved the gallium-arsenide industry, which today barely meets demand, and makes huge profits.
Another example - all the computer games that teenagers and adults play are 'stepchildren' of the military simulators. The simulators are designed to save the armies money - an hour of flight, sailing a vessel at sea, these are operations that cost millions of dollars, and the use of simulators saves this."
And what about information security?
"The whole idea in information security is to find an algorithm that a reasonable computer, in a reasonable time, will not crack. Why are the 'evil' celebrating today? Because in the competition between them and the 'good', they have reasonable development capabilities. When the quantum computers come in, then encryption is the one that will win, the 'good guys' will win. In the quantum computers, the encryption will be such that it will not be possible to crack it. Practically, I estimate that this will happen within ten years."
Twice Israel Security Award
Major (res.) Prof. Yitzhak Ben Israel, 56, studied mathematics, physics and philosophy, and has two master's degrees, and a doctorate in the philosophy of science. Ben Israel held a series of positions in the operations, intelligence and development system, among others as head of the performance research branch and head of the research department in Air Force Intelligence, as well as the head of R&D (research and development) in the IDF and the Ministry of Defense. In 1998, he was promoted to the rank of colonel as head of the Ministry of Defense (research and development of weapons of war and technological infrastructure). During his service he received five awards, including the Air Force Award for the development of a computerized command and control system, and twice the Israel Defense Award: in '72 for the development of the Phantom bomb system,
And in 2001, for "a project that is an expression of an innovative concept of the future battlefield". Ben Israel heads the security studies program at the School of Government and Policy at Tel Aviv University, as well as heads two research centers.
A connoisseur of military technology
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