Israel accelerates armored-combat innovation, ensuring battlefield dominance against terror tunnels, urban warfare, and enemy militias.
Brig. Gen. Oren Giber, head of the Defense Ministry’s Merkava and Armored Vehicles Directorate (MANTAK), revealed a dramatic leap in Israel’s ground-combat capabilities during the DefenseTech Conference at Tel Aviv University, showcasing systems designed to secure Israeli battlefield superiority against increasingly sophisticated terror threats.
Giber outlined a sweeping transformation in armored warfare:
“We are reinventing the central role of ground-combat platforms for the deadly, complex battles ahead.”
Israel’s new roadmap includes robotic integration inside tanks, real-time digital information-sharing between armored platforms, and an advanced operational network that synchronizes manned and unmanned systems seamlessly.
According to Giber, these innovations will allow Israel’s armored forces to complete full operational cycles in real time, giving ground units unprecedented situational awareness and lethal precision.
Revolutionizing the battlefield with hybrid robotic-armored capabilities
Israel’s future tanks will fuse:
- Off-the-shelf civilian tech
- Military-grade AI & robotics
- Manned–unmanned teaming (MUM-T)
- Advanced real-time data fusion
- Next-generation sensors and targeting systems
All optimized to function at the tactical edge, where Israeli soldiers routinely face hostile urban environments, ambush zones, and subterranean terror infrastructure.
Urban warfare: the hardest battlefield in the world
Giber addressed the brutal realities of Gaza-style combat:
“We’re fighting with multi-ton systems inside dense urban chaos, above terror tunnels, under fire.”
He emphasized the enormous challenge of using active-protection systems in cities packed with visual noise, heat signatures, civilians, and hidden threats.
Israel’s Trophy active-protection system — a global breakthrough — proved itself yet again during recent fighting, intercepting anti-tank threats and saving countless IDF tank crews from Hamas and Islamic Jihad attacks.
Flexible, rapidly adaptive platforms — Israel’s next strategic edge
The recent war reinforced that armored vehicles must evolve quickly:
- Modular armor configurations
- Adaptive AI threat-response
- Cheaper mass-production models
- Hybrid robotic–manned variants
- Increased lethality at lower cost
Giber declared:
“We must ensure Israel can continue producing advanced platforms in large quantities, with higher performance, and at reduced cost.”
This vision positions Israel to outpace regional threats — including Iranian proxies, terror militias, and heavily armed urban guerrilla groups — and guarantees that the IDF remains the most advanced, lethal, and protected ground-combat force in the Middle East.
