When combatants either cannot or would not use their ground maneuver forces in a military campaign, and artillery is not precise enough for hitting targets where collateral damage is forbidden, there is only one tool available in the General Staff’s box – (namely) the Air Force. Offensively, by fighter-bombers, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles; defensively, by anti-missile systems; and through persistent and time-critical intelligence collection and mission overwatch, the Israel Air Force has proven itself as the go-to branch in the IDF. This is the popular view, and in order to find out whether it is also the professional one, let’s turn to two senior veterans of the IAF, one who dedicated his service to flying and one who was determined to intercept whoever and whatever was flying with unfriendly intentions.
Guests Brigadier General (Res.) Doron Gavish, Former Air Defense Chief, Israel Air Force, Col. (Res.) Reuven Ben-Shalom, TV7 Powers-in-Play Panelist, Cross-Cultural Strategist and Associate at ICT, Reichman University, and Amir Oren.
