Hoze said the unit would be expanded to the level of battalion. He said
the center was also training a unit to counter any BW or CW attack on combat
forces.
Officials said the military has determined that Hizbullah was receiving
chemical warheads for its huge missile and rocket arsenal. They said Syria
was expected to join any regional war by firing both BW- and CW-tipped
missiles and rockets toward Israel.
As a result, the Israeli military has extended the training of soldiers
assigned to battle through a weapons of mass destruction attack. Officials
said the
training would increase from the current five to eight months during 2010.
"Starting this year, the soldiers of the ABCW unit were enlisted
separately from the rest of the Combat Engineering Corps," Hoze said. "We
are in the process of extending the training course from five to eight
months, and are increasing the intensity of the battalion's training
courses, so that it will be identical to every other battalion course."
Officials said the planned battalion would specialize in identifying and
neutralizing WMD agents. They said this would enable other combat units to
fight amid any WMD attack on Israel from either Lebanon or Syria.
"The battalion will enable other forces to continue their combat
operations despite an ongoing ABC [atomic, biological, chemical] attack,"
Hoze said. "It will evacuate, decontaminate, and protect the forces. The
battalion knows how to detect and identify chemical warfare materials, and
will help soldiers to decontaminate and return to the field."
Officials said the new center would also train other combat units. They
said the center would oversee the procurement of NBC [nuclear, biological
and chemical] combat vehicles to operate during a WMD strike.
"The moment a single chemical missile lands, the soldier will be certain
that other missiles are also CW, and this will affect him psychologically,"
Hoze said. "As soon as soldiers learn how to identify the presence of
chemical agents in the area, this will make it both physically and mentally
easier on the forces."
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