With eye towards next war, IDF infantrymen practice destroying rocket launchers
By YAAKOV LAPPINA Hezbollah member carries a mock rocket next to a poster of the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah(photo credit: REUTERS)
An elite Nahal infantry brigade company held an exercise in recent days in which soldiers practiced engaging and destroying enemy rocket launchers.The Golan Heights drill saw the unit simulate close combat together with tanks, infantry and artillery forces, Maj. L. (name withheld), commander of the Engineering and Sabotage Company in the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, told The Jerusalem Post.“Although we carry out daily border-security missions, we are maintaining our readiness for war,” the officer said on Thursday.Destroying rocket launchers is “something we are prepared to do all year long. We understand that this is a central threat in any arena, north or south,” he added.The unit destroyed rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, and during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.“We’ll do it in the next conflict, too, I assume,” said Maj. L.During the exercise, the unit’s members scaled a mountain, and entered a mock village where a guerrilla enemy was lurking.“We practiced engaging targets with artillery, suppressive fire, and infantry. We move quietly, with heavy burdens on our back. One of our missions is to open up a path [for other advancing forces], Maj. L. said, though he declined to provide details on that aspect of his unit’s work.In addition to targeting rocket launchers, the company, one of three in the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion, specializes in antitank missile fire.Soldiers must complete 1.4 years of intense combat training before being able to serve in the unit. It is currently stationed on the border with Syria, where it is carrying out “daily security missions that are more complex [than ordinary infantry-border missions],” Maj. L. said.