The sources said the Army wanted to add at least another 5,000 combat
troops over the next year. They said the Army has already reassigned the Kfir
Brigade, with about 2,500 troops, from the West Bank to the northern border.
In 2011, the sources said, Kfir would serve alongside more prominent
combat brigades such as Givati and Golani. They said Kfir would serve along
the Lebanese border and be trained to quickly respond to any hostility from
Lebanon and Syria.
The sources said the military has envisioned that the next regional war
could last weeks or even months. They cited the prospect that Iran and
Syria, with huge arsenals, would be capable of sustaining missile and rocket
attacks on the Jewish state.
"The Syrian Army has developed attack capabilities, by combining a
number of different threats," Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz
said on Sept. 20. "The threats of the past have not changed, but have been
added to new, different threats. The scope has grown and the strength is
much more significant. This is the trend that the IDF is preparing for,
while coping with challenges of mobility and camouflage."
The sources said the military has intensified efforts to coordinate the
Army and Air Force for strike operations. They said infantry units have been
coordinating with attack helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and other
platforms.
Israel has assessed that war with Hizbullah and Syria could erupt even
before 2011. The sources said this could rapidly spread to a multi-front war
that would include the Hamas regime in the neighboring Gaza Strip.
Air-ground cooperation was said to have been a key element in an
exercise on Sept. 21 in the Golan Heights along the front with Syria. The
sources said the exercise demonstrated an infantry advance accompanied by
close-air support.
"In this exercise there has been exceptional cooperation between air and
ground forces, where pilots have learned the complexities that the ground
forces must deal with, so that they can support them from the air,"
Ashkenazi said.