Female combat soldiers undergo special fitness training to serve in Armored Corps
Only 15 female soldiers will be selected out of the combat rookies to commence training for the co-ed infantry battalions. These women will eventually be incorporated in the armored units for several positions, including positions of operational activity.
In the coming weeks, the first female soldiers to be included in the IDF Armored Corps will be drafted, and now, details of the experiment emerged.
This experiment will allow the IDF to examine the incorporation of female soldiers in the armored array in ongoing security missions and border protection.
According to the details of the program published on Ynet for the first time, the female soldiers to participate in the project will be drafted in the coming weeks to co-ed, light infantry battalions such as Caracal and the Lions of Jordan, where they will undergo basic combat training.
During the four months of basic training, the most suitable 15 soldiers will be chosen for the experiment, who will then be transferred to the Shizafon training base. There, they will be particularly trained for armored combat over four additional months for three out of four tank positions: driver, gunner and loader. The role of tank commander will be filled by carefully selected experienced tank commanders.
Training of female soldiers will not be similar to the training of male soldiers. The soldiers will undergo special fitness training to strengthen their muscles and it will be mainly targeted for border protection. For example, the female soldiers will not be involved in company drills like the other armored corps' soldiers, but will practice ongoing security missions in tanks—such as moving from point A to point B, shooting at different-ranged targets, collaborative work with the observation forces and lengthy ambushes.
The third phase of the experimental program, which will take about a year, will take place in the last quarter of 2017 and in early 2018, when the female soldiers undergo practical experience in the tanks in the southern sector. In this sector, they will work alongside the Caracal Battalion and partake in operational tasks.
The experiments will be conducted on Merkava 3 tanks, which according to a senior officer, was chosen due to its relatively middle-of-the-road operating level, when compared to the advanced Merkava 4 or the outdated Merkava 2.
Only at the end of the year, will the Armored Corps and the Army Headquarters conclude whether female soldiers will serve in the tank.
As it stands, if the experiment succeeds, these female soldiers will be central to the new border protection array, which includes combat collection brigades in areas such as the Lebanese border and the Golan Heights, alongside their incorporation in infantry battalions in the south.
The program will be monitored by teams of nutritionists, combat fitness instructors and medical corps on a regular basis.
During the summer, an armored corps team is expected to leave for training in the United States, during which time they will have the opportunity to closely observe the service of female soldiers (albeit, to a very limited extent) in tanks in the US Army.
The IDF headquarters has been working on this training program for months. Two previous attempts to examine the possibility of incorporating female combat soldiers in tanks over the last decade have failed: Once during the theoretical stage, and a second time when armored corps' instructors gave it a try but failed, mainly due to physiological reasons.
A few retired senior officers have expressed dissatisfaction with the procedure. "I think it would be a mistake to incorporate female soldiers in the armored corps," said former minister Avigdor Kahalani, recipient of the Medal of Valor from the Yom Kippur War. Gen. (res.) Yiftach Ron-Tal claimed that using women to man tanks is an "outrageous" concept lobbied by leftists who wish to weaken the IDF.
A senior officer in the armored corps, told Ynet: "We approach this experiment with a lot of experience and lessons learned from border protection battalions in which female combat soldiers have been serving, so there is a reason to be optimistic.
"A control team will closely accompany the process, and we will make the necessary adjustments even within the tank itself, such as a seat dedicated for a female soldier, or female-adapted equipment. At the end of the experiment, we will be able to answer the important questions of whether women can run a tank during routine and emergency situations, and what is the right time to do so. The recruitment process will be thorough, and will provide us with experience, even if some of them drop out."
