IDF sources reported a 350% increase in the number of female warfighters serving in the IDF Ground Arm between 2015 and 2016, an improvement in motivation to opt for combat positions among female recruits from the religious sector, and an increase in the recruitment of religious female warfighters into the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps – at present the "Eilat" company is a "gender specific" company and soon the entire "Eitam" battalion will become a "gender specific" battalion enabling religious female warfighters to join its ranks.
As part of the establishment of the new border protection layout, which integrates the border protection mission and commands the various setups, the border protection training school will be established in November, where the personnel of this layout will be trained (surveillance operators, combat intelligence collection operators, trackers, operations center NCOs and light infantry border battalions). The establishment of the new border protection layout provides a glimpse into the data and service characteristics of IDF female warfighters. Last week, the IDF Ground Arm presented, in a briefing to the press held at the Quirya compound, the border protection layout currently being established. The new layout includes the four mixed light infantry battalions (Caracal, Arayot HaYarden, Bardelas and the new 47th battalion), the combat intelligence collection forces, the civilian settlement protection forces, the command centers of the regional brigades and divisions and other elements.
This new layout is being established pursuant to a staff work effort that lasted about eighteen months, during which the IDF attempted to make the necessary adaptations and improvements required in order to enable female warfighters to serve in the ground forces (today, some 1,300 female warfighters serve in ground units), with the emphasis on the female warfighters in the mixed battalions and the combat intelligence collection battalions, which are intended to constitute the core of the new layout. This staff work effort produced various data, trends and conclusions regarding the typical female warfighter of the IDF ground forces.
For example, a comparison between a company of new female recruits in basic infantry training course and a mixed warfighter company indicated that in the mixed company, the number of 'sick bay' calls and visits to the medical staff was four times higher. It was further indicated that female warfighters are 5 cm shorter, on average, than male warfighters, in addition to other physiological changes that would require adaptations of the nutrition of female warfighters as early as during the training stage at the new training base for mixed light infantry battalions. The new base is a part of the Sayarim Combat Intelligence Collection School in the Arava region, and is to be opened between August and November (today, the training companies of these battalions are scattered among the brigade training centers of the Golani, Givati and Nahal infantry brigades).
Another adaptation currently under development for the benefit of the female warfighters is a lighter and more comfortable helmet and a combat vest designed specifically to fit the female body. Additionally, a decision was made to discontinue the use of heavy machine guns and MAG machine guns in the configurations carried by the male and female warfighters. These machine guns will only be mounted on the routine security vehicles. The male and female warfighters will continue to carry the Negev machine guns regarded as lighter and more comfortable. The light infantry battalions will adopt the shortened version of the M-16 assault rifle, which is, admittedly longer but lighter than the Micro-Tavor rifle used thus far by the warfighters of the Caracal battalion.
Fighting the Dropout Issue
IDF sources admitted that a substantial dropout was recorded about two years ago and about a year ago in two major elements of the new border protection layout: the new light infantry battalions and the female surveillance operator force.
9% of female surveillance operators in active service plus 12.5% of the operators undergoing training dropped out of this demanding job in 2015, but last year the dropout figure decreased to 8% during active service and 5.7% during training. The female surveillance operator layout has grown by 1500% in the last decade. Pursuant to the reconstruction of the operations center infrastructures and the revised leave arrangements, dropout figures decreased by 15% between 2015 and 2016. According to IDF sources, dropout has stopped and decreased in the light infantry battalions as well. "The staff was not suitable for these companies. They had squad leaders and platoon commanders that had hailed from such other brigades as the Golani Brigade and did not know how to deal with the special characteristics of a mixed company," a senior Ground Arm officer explained. "Today, almost all of the commanders in these companies had previously served in the mixed battalions. Contrary to the American concept according to which the same selection processes are applied to both male and female warfighters, we decided to make adaptations so as to have many more female warfighters relative to the US Army."
Another officer described the extent to which negative media reports regarding the service conditions affect motivation as early as during the recruitment stage: "A few weeks ago, 35 female recruits at the BAKUM (IDF central recruitment & selection depot) refused to be transported to the surveillance operator course pursuant to negative media reports, despite the increase we had experienced following Operation Protective Edge." Another element with which the IDF is trying to cope with the fluctuations in motivation is the new unique beret designed for the entire personnel of the new layout by one of the female warfighters – a yellow and brown camouflage pattern.
All of the above notwithstanding, in the coming years, the new layout is not expected to be involved in the primary activities of the world of routine security that keep the IDF busy in the various border sectors. These activities are assigned to the battalions of the regular brigades – the same battalions expected to execute the ground maneuvers in enemy territory during wartime. These battalions, the very core of the combat force of the regular military, will continue to be trained for routine security operations by the IDF regional commands. "Our vision is to establish a training base through which all of the IDF battalions assigned to operational routine security activities will go," explained the Ground Arm officer. "For the time being, the new layout includes the drivers, the operations center officers and female NCOs for the various sectors, the routine security coordinators and the trackers. The objective is to assign all four light infantry battalions to operational security activities in the Judea and Samaria district by 2018 – just like the mixed battalions of the IDF Home Front Command. Today, these four battalions also have operational plans for fighting in enemy territory near the border. We look at the border threat while planning a few steps ahead. Accordingly, for example, the issue of multicopters is already on our doorstep, as a surveillance asset or as a strike asset, operated by Hamas as well as by Hezbollah, and we are preparing to face this threat, among others."
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