By: Arye Green
IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi decided to continue the trial program that integrates women into the Armored Corps and approved moving on to the next stage of the pilot program after he reviewed the results of the first part of the trial, the IDF announced on Sunday.
The IDF has so far adopted an ambiguous policy towards women serving in tank units. In June 2018, the military announced it had successfully run a pilot program for female tank commanders, hoping to integrate women into the Armored Corps.
However, in April 2019, the IDF announced women would no longer be able to serve in the Armored Corps and the pilot was frozen.
The decision to continue the trial came shortly after two female tank commanders filed a petition with the High Court of Justice requesting to be allowed to serve in the armored corps.
According to the IDF’s statement, Kochavi held extensive discussions on the matter with top IDF officers. The discussions included an in-depth look into the results of the pilot, as well as medical data from women in combat roles elsewhere in the IDF.
IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman stated that “our decisions have been made in light of three key criteria – the operational effectiveness, equal opportunities and women’s health.”
Zilberman explained that further testing is necessary due to several shortcomings in the first stage of the trial which left the results inconclusive.
“After analyzing the insights from the previous pilot, there were several shortcomings that arose – the number of participants and the fact that only two-thirds of them finished, the duration of training, professional shortcomings during training, as well as the partial operational reality that took place in the limited time of four months,” he said.
“The contribution of women in the IDF is tremendous across all sections and will continue to be very significant. Inclusion of women in the IDF in general, including in operational activities, is important, alongside the necessity of maintaining the professional requirements for each position,” Zilberman concluded.
According to the IDF, the next stage of the pilot program is expected to include approximately twice as many participants as the previous one. The parameters of the height and weight of participants in the program will be changed, as will the time spent in operational scenarios. The tanks will be staffed by entirely female teams.
(TPS)