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IDF reserve soldiers greeting each other after returning from southern Lebanon last summer. (AP)
Last update - 19:11 19/11/2007
Comptroller: IDF reservists didn't train properly for 5 years
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Olmert, IDF, Comptroller 

Broad budget cuts caused the Israel Defense Forces to curtail training for regular army and reserve units, with entire reserve battalions failing to train in full life-fire exercises for periods of up to five years, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss concluded in his annual report, made public on Monday.

The annual report dealt with a series of alleged military failures, including the leaking of classified information to the press, the poor equipping of emergency supply depots, and severe ammunition shortages suffered by IDF troops.

Regarding the lack of resrvist training, the comptroller's office concluded that the top echelon of the government knew of the shortcomings, but chose to ignore them.
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The report describes a meeting held just one day before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War in July 2006, in which senior military officers gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert contradictory evaluations of the combat readiness of the army in general and reserve units in particular.


Then-defense minister Amir Peretz and aides to the prime minister told the comptroller that they heard no reports prior to the war casting doubt on the readiness of the military.

In contrast, Peretz's predecessor at the defense post, Shaul Mofaz, told the comptroller that as early as August 2005, he warned former prime minister Ariel Sharon that the prolonged lack of training had rendered the reserve structure of the army unfit for combat.

According to Lindenstrauss, "An examination of the minutes of the meeting indicates that the participants, including the prime minister, did not react to the remarks. We did not find that the cabinet discussed this vital issue in the wake of the defense minister's substantive comments."

Between 2002 and 2006, training for IDF reserve field units fell short of projections, the report found, noting that there were four and five year periods in which entire reserve battalions did not train in full live-fire maneuvers.

The report also found that from 2001 to 2006, some brigade commanders of reserve and regular army units failed to undergo supplemental training courses, though army regulations require them to do so. A total of 13 percent of battalion commanders and up to 39 percent of company commanders also failed to undergo appropriate refresher courses.

The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response that since the Second Lebanon War, the IDF has been engaged in a profound and comprehensive process of investigation and lesson-learning in all matters pertaining to improving the readiness of the reserve component of the ground forces.

Even before the publication of the report, training was undertaken on a scale that has been unknown in recent years. In addition, a multi-year plan has been instituted for training and maintaining the combat readiness of reserve units.

Comptroller: IDF leaked classified information to the media
The report also asserted that the failure on the part of the government to set guidelines for disclosing information to the media led to the leaking of classified information the press.

The report maintains that this lack of control led to a surplus of information in the public sphere, seriously hindering the ability of the homefront to relay urgent instructions and warnings to civilians in the line of fire during the war.

Comptroller: IDF emergency supply depots left unstocked even after outbreak of war
Glaring shortcomings in the equipping of weapons and supply depots were rampant even as the war began, and were only dealt with after the outbreak of the war, the report asserts.

According to the report, IDF storage depots, where combat units store emergency supplies they will need in time of war, were only sent the necessary supplies several days after reservists had already been called up and were deployed in Israel's north.

These shortcomings reportedly led to a situation where officers and soldiers were left with outdated or insufficient medical and logistical supplies. They report says they were driven to request military supplies such as flak jackets, spare clothes and even food from civilian sources. The comptroller added that this phenomenon would lead the public to lose faith in the IDF.

The report did not lay the blame solely upon the current IDF leadership, stating that in the past 6 years, repeated initiatives to update supply depots were torpedoed by a series of senior IDF commanders. The report cites a 58 percent cut in manpower for IDF units in charge of supplying IDF logistics depots.

The IDF Spokesman's Office issued a response to the report's findings, stating that they have initiated a five year, NIS 2 billion plan devoted to the improvement and renovation of IDF emergency depots, and the deployment of far higher numbers of non-commissioned officers tasked with supervising the plan.

Comptroller: Severe ammunition shortages hurt IDF's ability to fight
During the war, the IDF encountered a severe shortage in ammunition and weaponry that led to a marked downgrade in troops' fighting capabilities, the comptroller's report found.

In spite of the known shortcomings in military ordinance, the IDF failed to take steps to prepare emergency supply depots that could allay these shortcomings, nor did they take steps to ensure that domestic military industrial production could meet these needs the report states.

The report asserts that budget shortcomings led to ammunition deficiencies of as high as 50%, and that Defense Ministry attempts to acquire emergency supply reinforcements came too late or were of too short supply to be of any relevance.

The IDF Spokesman's Office issued a statement asserting that ammunition supplies have reached pre-war levels, and that post-War IDF studies have led to large-scale adjustments in operational planning, including in regard to the expected levels of military ordinance and logistical supplies available in time of war
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  1.   ALL GOV`TS KNEW ABOUT HIZBOLAH KATYUSHAS IN LEBANON, DIDN`T CARE) 18:32  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 19/11/07
  2.   "Competing" over 2nd Leb War... 19:38  |  Esther 19/11/07
  3.   Oaf Sharon stocked his own pockets instead of IDF supplies,confis 19:56  |  Absolute Sweden 19/11/07
  4.   Big deal 19:57  |  Ami Weingott 19/11/07
  5.   Boker tov Eliyahu 20:02  |  sh 19/11/07
  6.   So where have the billions from US gone? 20:30  |  Tim 19/11/07
  7.   preparedness 20:34  |  Alone ben Caro 19/11/07
  8.   Big Deal? 21:38  |  Meir 19/11/07
  9.   Amazing Incompetence , Breathtaking Stupidity 00:02  |  Tod Zuckerman 20/11/07
  10.   Re Big Deal? 00:09  |  GPWS1 20/11/07
  11.   Tim #6 02:23  |  Free Gilad Shalit 20/11/07
  12.   ammunition supplies have reached pre-war levels 15:08  |  Realist 20/11/07
  13.   Supplies 16:50  |  The First Realist 07/09/08
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