Page 8 - ADEX 2024 - DAY 2

Innovations in Force Protection

Reshaping Modern Combat

Global conflicts are demonstrating the im- Head Of Business Development quadrotor drones can incapacitate ground
portance of defending against asymmetric combat vehicles worth ‘millions of dollars’.
threats, making advances in force protection at Rafael’s Land & Manoeuvre
essential. This is resulting in new systems Directorate.
that enable manoeuvrability and surviv- Recent conflicts have highlighted the danger
ability in the face of evolving threats, thus Force protection (FP) has traditionally been of asymmetric threats, ’When an adversary
enabling forces to effectively complete defined as a series of defensive measures doesn’t have the budget, they start to be-
their missions and ensuring uninterrupted designed to protect military personnel, come very sharp and intelligent and today
combat continuity. Social media channels equipment and infrastructure from sym- everybody can buy anti-tank missiles and
are awash with footage of anti-tank mis- rockets in a very cheap and easy way to
siles and one-way attack drones destroying metric and asymmetric threats to preserve facilitate this kind of strike,” Bitton said.
personnel and equipment on both sides of freedom of action and operational effective- As a result three-dimensional, 360-degree,
the war in Ukraine, while in Gaza, Hamas ness. However, given the rapidly evolving “full hemisphere” protection against threats
regularly uploads videos of rocket-pro- nature of the modern battlespace, the most is vital.
pelled grenade (RPG) attacks on Israeli ar- advanced armed forces worldwide are now
moured platforms. ‘You can have the considering how technologies used to de- Evolving Force Protection
fend static positions can be employed to
best air force and intelligence support offensive operations, particularly Rafael’s Land & Manoeuvre Directorate,
in the world, but if you don’t combat manoeuvre through complex and which has a long history in FP, is now re-
have strong, fast, powerful and contested areas of operation. Ongoing con- sponding quickly to emerging demand sig-
flicts worldwide continue to illustrate the im-
long-range manoeuvre to break portance of FP across the contemporary op- nals from the COE, which include the ability
to protect combat manoeuvre forces during
through enemy lines, you can- erating environment (COE). In understanding offensive operations. ‘Rafael is a technology
not win a war,’ said Guy Bitton, the notion of asymmetric warfare in the COE, lab for Israel’s Ministry of Defence, so there
one sees that weaponised fixed-wing and
is a very close connection with the Israel

8 SEPTEMBER-25-2024 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/DAILY NEWS