22.03.2005, 14:31
:hand: von <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=725366&C=navwar">http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=725366&C=navwar</a><!-- m -->
Zitat:Israeli Planners Cling to Power-Projection Concept
Despite last year’s resounding rebuff by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) General Staff, senior military officials here still harbor hopes of deploying an amphibious assault ship or long-range troop carrier capable of delivering sizable forces and all their war-fighting gear thousands of miles from Israel’s borders.
Proponents of the plan, initially proposed by Vice Adm. Yedidya Ya’ari, former commander of the Israel Navy, insist Israel needs a strategic, sea-based power-projection force for the war against terrorism. Although cost and operational concerns sank the proposed 13,000-ton ship last summer, officials here say the strategic rationale for it will only grow stronger. [...]
Ron-Tal on March 8 said IDF experts are continuing to evaluate an operational concept he calls “strategic raid,” whereby a self-contained ground-maneuvering force and all its support elements are delivered by and supported from the sea.
“I’m not speaking about special forces. This is not like Entebbe,” Ron-Tal said. Israel’s 1976 rescue operation of hostages in Uganda involved multiple C-130 Hercules aircraft, commando forces and supporting equipment. “I’m speaking about having the ability to stay for a while: weeks or maybe more than that. The idea is not exactly to have a Marine Corps, but some of their basic capabilities. … We’re speaking about not more than a battalion or two and about 30 tanks, maybe less than that.”
According to Ron-Tal, the IDF needs to plan for contingencies in which the Israel Air Force may not have the ultimate answer for new threats. “If there is a kind of organization that you can’t hit from the air, then we need to be ready for this. And that means we need to begin — and this will take a long time — to plan for a new strategic capability that will balance all the services together: Navy, Ground Forces and the Air Force,” he said. [...]