Itongadol.- Defense Minister Moshe Ya\’alon and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz cancelled an annual Home Front Command drill scheduled for June, due to what they described as a lack of funds. The drill has been postponed to an unknown date.
A senior defense source said the move is a "first step on the way to a near complete stop of training for the IDF and the defense establishment, because of budget constraints. This isn\’t a game and we are not issuing threats. This is simply reality." The drill, Turning Point 8, was supposed to be held under the auspices of a new Home Front Authority that is being set up by the Defense Ministry. Had it gone ahead, the exercise would have simulated a war-time scenario and responses to mass missile strikes on Israel.
The Home Front Command, government ministries, local authorities, and emergency services would have all taken part, as well as the Electric Corporation, the Mekorot Water Company. Petrochemical industry sites would have also taken part.
"Resources have run out for the defense establishment and the IDF, and we\’re stopping this activity," the senior source said. "As a result, we will dramatically decrease our level of [combat] fitness and readiness, not just in the home front, but in other sectors too, including conscripted and reserve combat units." Last year, the Home Front Command held a national wartime exercise, Turning Point 7, at the end of May, and tested responses to an unconventional missile attack on Israeli cities. A 90-second air raid siren was heard across the country, and civilians received area-specific. mock missile alerts in the form of text messages sent to their cell phones. All government ministries and local councils were involved.
The 1.75 billion shekel cut to the defense budget for 2014 has reduced training programs for enlisted units, and seen all reserve call-ups cancelled in 2013. Reserve training has resumed this year. In the absence of the reserves, brigades made up of conscripted soldiers have seen the duration of border security duties extended by several months, resulting in fewer rotations of units around various frontiers, leaving very little time for training.
In April, the IDF said it allocated millions of shekels to a new training program for the Ground Forces, designed to temporarily bypass the drastic cut in war exercises.
Army training officers say that under the initiative, infantry squads or companies leave base for one week of intense combat training before resuming active duty missions. The program, which began this year, is expected to continue into 2015, by which time the next defense budget will be known.
The training model is seen as a temporary and cheap solution, with costs mainly going to transport and ammunition.
On Wednesday, Ya’alon criticized the Finance Ministry’s intention to enact defense budget cuts as damaging.
“We already feel the damage to our operational readiness in preparedness and exercises,” he said. “The Finance Ministry, as part of a regular policy, is avoiding its commitments and government decisions about the defense budget.”
According to Ya’alon, the Finance Ministry treats the Defense Ministry differently than other government offices and is not appropriately transparent.
Israel’s defense cannot withstand the cuts, Ya’alon said.
“We are in crisis,” he added. “We’re existing at a minimal level.”