Get real Hatzkel. Or start reading the Hebe news.

Shirrush....

I wasn't implying that Israel will get all the above, but barak and ashkenazi are now making re-evaluation of battle doctrine's due to the breakdown in the air doctrine that had been governing Israel battle conceptualization for a good 30 yrs.... They are going to make a real renovation of the ground forces and put money in new military platforms. Barak has made a number of remarks about putting in the trophy system and the new Israeli apc in full production. The threat perception of the israeli public is the highest its been since '73 and would fully back a massive defense budget...Olmert though is still stifling the increase...but he will not long endure within this debate...the man who single handally ruined Israeli detterence is going to stop Defense build-up, it won't hold...it is guaranteed that Barak will get his way. So in terms of training, more anti missile defense, hercules, israeli apc's, and additional ground divisions these are completely plausible and reliable statements that Israel is going to fund these developments. In the front page of The J post today they are announcing a massive increase of Arrow batteries in the north... these are from readily available sources.

Now the LHD's and the Helicopter are not as factual and are less concrete...they demand huge investment and long term planning. But I was writing about these, b/c there are rumors and buzz suggesting Israel is possibly going to undertake these military developments. The Canberra class LHD's, The navy has been complaining for 15 yrs about the need for the ability to make battalion level assaults away from its shores possible. The newly appointed Chief of Israel's navy made a speech 4  months ago about Israel navy's role in deterrence and force projection and advocated procurement of such vehicles to facilitate these military options. He also talking about purchasing another two Saar V's. When He took over his office last month, one of the first acts in office was a cost analysis of Australia's procurement  of the two LHD's from spain.

As for the helicopters, there was leaks of a joint Israeli-India unmanned helicopter to counter the chinese anti ship missiles that scored a nice shot on the Hanit last year. Still in discussion, but Barak, in my opinion is going for the 'Hokum"...he has made it clear in his hiatus from politics that he believes Israel should have military independance on the tactical level and this means producing its own helicopter force.

The problem with all that I say is that it is innuendo, rumor and genralization..I understand this, and more then likely, even if some of the above is to get done, there will be a new coalition agreement, or new elections and back to square one. The fact is though that the generals in Israel are in the midst of a complete and massive overhaul in strategy and battle doctrines and today with the increase in US aid and the Israeli economic boom Israel can make some serious inroads into what it chooses to supply to its armed forces.... But I understand the skepticism here on this thread shirrush.

i love "innocent" people like you who say the right things only 20 years late..

I'm sure you meant "link"...

Lots of smoke and very little hard data here.
Keeping the Merk IV production line open is certainly good news for some 20,000 Israeli families (If there's any truth to it!), but apart from that, I don't see anything new, or any glint of a new thinking in the IDF's upper spheres.
There is indeed some money earmarked for measures aiming at making the reservists less despondent about their duties, but I do not see any incentives to keep the best and brightest from leaving the services for better-paid hi-tech jobs, or any hint that the IDF has finally got its jit together about promoting excellence and creativity instead of its traditional nurturing of conformity and mediocrity.

No word either about the Stryker, or about the implementation of the Tavor assault rifle, or why it is just not happening.
They've apparently reached a decision about procuring ONE squadron (24) of F-35's after 2014, but another article also inferred that the purchase of new transport aircraft has been canceled as a result.
Also, it is unclear whether the Navy is getting one, or two LCS variants, or whether the procurement of the new Barak 8 naval SAM has been approved or not.

This guy has a few more details on the  "Tefen 2012" programme, but it's still pretty sketchy.

" Link ".