The Jerusalem Post reports: A newly established artillery brigade recently held a large-scale war drill to prepare for a potential clash with Hamas in Gaza, but the live-fire training involved far more than shells.
During the drill, the brigade, dubbed Flame of Fire – a part of the Sinai Division – also fired precision-guided Spear (Romach) rockets, produced by Israel Military Industries, which are surface-to-surface, GPS-guided weapons. The brigade operated radars that can detect the source of enemy rocket fire and enable rapid return fire and deployed additional measures that remain classified.
The drill sheds light on the evolving role and capabilities of artillery units in the IDF. In recent years, these were dismissed as being no longer relevant to 21st-century asymmetrical warfare, yet they proved vital in operations that saved infantry units under heavy fire in Gaza during the 2014 war with Hamas.
“There are some who eulogized the artillery before Operation Protective Edge,” Col. Rami Habudraham, 41, commander of the Flame of Fire Brigade, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
“In [the Gazan City district of] Shejaia, it was the artillery that rescued the Golani Brigade [from a coordinated Hamas ambush of antitank missiles and machine-gun fire],” he said.
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