While many of you know that I consider the Israeli/Hamas conflict a sideshow to the world changing battle going on in the Ukraine, its still worth the time to do an early "lessons learned".
My take away?
1. Armor matters.
The idea of Light Infantry/Special Ops etc... running around in heavy jeep type vehicles and being able to hook and jab with the enemy is a falsehood. If you consider Gaza and extrapolate the fighting with some of the mega cities located in the Pacific...like Manila, Singapore etc...you come up with idea that armor matters. Additionally vehicle protection systems like Trophy can make a difference. But here's the kicker. Like the Israeli's experienced we're going to have to work out different exit drills that will take our infantry farther away from their transports. Greater dispersion of the infantry from their vehicles will make communication even more important. I haven't seen any papers or writings on the subject but we need to get to work on it asap.
2. Precision fires matter.
Much to my consternation, it appears that the days of calling in a grid square and having the cannon cockers destroy it are long past. The Israelis are using their stocks of Spike missiles at an alarming rate. The few times that they've used traditional cannon fire on targets its been a public relations nightmare with the "haters" in the media pumping up any death or injury as a war crime instead of a side affect of that thing we all know as the tragedy of combat. But I'm especially talking about the use of naval guns here. From my understanding they were used one time and the results were less than desirable. We need to learn from that and adjust accordingly.
3. In urban fighting airpower takes a back seat.
The IAF is the best in the region, some would say one of the best in the world. But in this fight they're taking a back seat to the ground forces. Is it because of the ROE? Is it because of a lack of intel? Or is it because they're just not the right tool for this fight? I don't know. What I do know is that at the end of the day its up to mechanized infantry along with tanks, artillery (precision and to a limited degree indirect), engineers and the rest of the ground combat element to do the majority of the hookin' and jabbin' in this fight.
This is what I'm seeing. I might be seeing it wrong but it appears that the quantity and quality of your ground forces will be an important consideration for future fights.
NOTE: Upcoming post. What exactly is Light Infantry! Is US military light infantry different from other nations? Does anyone actually have Light Infantry units anymore? And why Special Operations IS NOT light infantry!