Israeli Air Force Re-Organization Aims for Expanded Capacity to Hit 10x as Many Targets
A strategic re-organization of the Israel Air Force portends to increase its capacity to wage war by “an order of magnitude,” translating into a 10-fold increase in the number of targets that it could hit at once in war time, Brig. Gen. Amikam Norkin, chief of air operations, told Defense News.
Norkin said that Israel struck 1,500 targets during the eight-day Pillar of Defense operation, in Gaza, in November 2012, doubling the targets it hit in the 34-day Lebanon War, in 2006, six years earlier. The Expanding Attack Capacity program, designed by his superior, IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, calls for Israel to be able to identify and attack 15,000 targets in a similar conflict.
“In Pillar of Defense, our daily attack capacity was twice that of Lebanon, despite the fact that [Gaza] was a much smaller area and more densely populated,” Norkin said. “Now, when we talk about the northern area of operations, we’re aspiring for an order of magnitude expansion — maybe more — in the number of targets to be destroyed every day.”
Israel will focus on “hurting the enemy where it hurts the most