The Role of the Israel Air Force in the
Operational
Doctrine of the Israel Defense Forces:
Continuity and Change
by
David Rodman
What role has air power traditionally occupied in the operational doctrine of
the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)? Has this role expanded or contracted with the
evolution of that doctrine? Has air power accomplished the tasks assigned to it
in the past? Could it accomplish the tasks assigned to it in the present? These
questions are of practical interest for at least two reasons. First, Israel has
frequently employed air power to defend its vital interests. Indeed, perhaps
more than any other state in the post-World War II era, it has relied on air
power to protect its national security. The Israeli case, then, is a potentially
rich source of data that could help to validate (or to invalidate) various
propositions about the general utility of air power. Second, Israel could find
itself embroiled in a future war, even though the Arab-Israeli conflict today
appears to be moving, albeit in fits and starts, towards a comprehensive
solution. The IDF, therefore, has devoted substantial thought to the role of air
power in 21st-century warfare. Given the considerable effectiveness of Israeli
air power on 20th-century battlefields, the military establishments of other
states would do well to take account of the IDF’s current perspective on the
role of air power.
The purpose of this article is neither to contemplate the accuracy of various
hypotheses about air power in light of the Israeli case nor to propose the
lessons that the military establishments of other states should draw from
contemporary IDF thinking. These chores are better left to genuine air power
experts, a group in which the author certainly does not merit inclusion. Rather,
the goals of this article are more modest: they are (1) to describe the role of air
power within the IDF’s past and present operational doctrines; (2) to analyze
(very briefly) the performance of air power under the former and to speculate
(again, very briefly) about its performance under the latter; and (3) to argue
that a gradual, but crucial, shift has been underway for some time in IDF
thinking about air power. To these ends, the first part of the article will
examine air power’s place in the IDF’s traditional doctrine, while the second
part will explore its place in the IDF’s "new" doctrine. But one caveat must be
made clear before moving on: this article treats only the conventional
battlefield. Israeli air power’s role in low-intensity conflict, not to mention its
