The Israeli Infantry Corps is a corps in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

. It is a maneuvering corps which primarily relies on infantry troops. It includes several regular and reserve service units and brigades which are operationally commanded by the IDF's regional commands.

Overview

The corps moves to the battlefield either on foot, on

jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...

s, or on

armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

s. Since the corps is based on soldiers who fight on foot, most of the weapons employed are personal or crew-served weapons.

Weapons

Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - IDF Soldiers at the Western Wall

The personal weapon of most IDF soldiers is the IWI Tavor X-95 "Micro-Tavor", and M4A1 assault rifle. The majority of regular-service Infantry Corps soldiers are equipped with the Tavor X-95 assault rifle. In 2005, the IMI Tavor Commando assault rifle was brought to operational use, and is currently the corps' principal assault rifle. Every soldier in operational service is also equipped with various

hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ...

s. The company and platoon weapons are diverse, and include the IMI

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...

and the

Fabrique Nationale Fabrique Nationale Herstal (), trading as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer based in Herstal, Belgium. It is currently the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe. ...

MAG machine guns. Heavier weapons include the

Browning Browning may refer to: Arts and entertainment * The Browning, an American electronicore band * ''Browning'', a set of variations by the composer William Byrd Places * Browning, Georgia, USA * Browning, Illinois, USA * Browning, Missouri, ...

M2 and the

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

Mk 19 grenade launcher The Mk 19 grenade launcher (pronounced Mark 19) is an American 40 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher that was first developed during the Vietnam War. Overview The Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-ser ...

. Various units also use designated marksmen and

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

s who rely on the M16A2E3, the

SR-25 The SR-25 (Stoner Rifle-25) is a designated marksman rifle and semi-automatic sniper rifle designed by Eugene Stoner and manufactured by Knight's Armament Company. The SR-25 uses a rotating bolt and a direct impingement gas system. It is loo ...

semi-automatic sniper rifle, the Remington M24 Sniper Weapon System, the Barrett M82A1, and recently the

H-S Precision Pro Series 2000 HTR H-S Precision Pro 2000 HTR ("heavy tactical rifle") is a bolt-action sniper rifle. It was designed and manufactured by the American company H-S Precision, Inc. The rifle is very accurate: 0.8 minute of angle with 7.62×51mm NATO, about 0.4 minute ...

"Barak 338".

Missiles and rockets

To engage armored targets, the corps uses a variety of grenades, rockets, and missiles. The corps units are equipped with

Anti-tank Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first dev ...

RPGs such as the

RPG-7 The RPG-7 (russian: link=no, РПГ-7, Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт, Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot) is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Th ...

, the

M72 LAW The M72 LAW (light anti-tank weapon, also referred to as the light anti-armor weapon or LAW as well as LAWS: light anti-armor weapons system) is a portable one-shot unguided anti-tank weapon. The solid rocket propulsion unit was developed in t ...

, and B-300 Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon. Recently, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems

MATADOR A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...

anti-structures rocket was entered to service, used successfully in Operation Cast Lead. These are relatively cheap and easy to operate weapons, and are in high availability to target vehicles or buildings. Since modern campaign

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful ...

s are heavily armoured, the designated weapon against them are

Anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

s, which are more expensive and difficult to operate than RPGs. The corps primarily uses Tow and the Spike missiles.

Vehicles

The corps uses a variety of vehicles for transport, scouting, troop mobility, security, and command and control. The light scout and mobile vehicles are Sufa jeeps and

Humvee The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the or ...

s. The former are reasonably defended but not heavily armoured as they are expected to provide utmost speed and navigability. The Humvee, on the other hand, exists in a variety of forms, some relatively heavily defended, some entirely "open." It is equipped with either a machine gun, rocket, anti tank missiles, communications equipment, sometimes including a small trailer. For transporting troops through hostile areas, the "Safari" is a converted bus equipped with heavy armor. M113A1-latrun-1

Under heavy fire, troops are primarily transported by APCs. Often, because of the armor offered by the APC, much of the fighting takes place with these, which are equipped with machine guns, mortars, rockets, or anti tank missiles. The IDF's principal APC is the M113, primarily those purchased from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

during the 1970s. Despite upgrades and improvements, it is considered an old and vulnerable APC. To respond to the need for heavier APCs, the IDF adapted a variety of older or captured tanks to serve as heavy APCs, such as the

Achzarit The Achzarit ( in Hebrew: "cruel", female inflection) is a heavily armored personnel carrier manufactured by the Israeli Defence Forces Corps of Ordnance. History The Achzarit is based on the Soviet-built T-54/T-55 tank, beginning with those ...

on a

T-55 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tank ...

chassis and the Nagmachon and Nakpadon on

Centurion tank The Centurion was the primary British Army main battle tank of the post- World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seei ...

chassis. Some heavy APCs were originally

combat engineering A combat engineer (also called pioneer or sapper) is a type of soldier who performs military engineering tasks in support of land forces combat operations. Combat engineers perform a variety of military engineering, tunnel and mine warfare tas ...

vehicles, such as the Puma, used by the

Combat Engineering Corps The Israeli Combat Engineering Corps ( he, חיל ההנדסה הקרבית, ''Heil HaHandasa HaKravit'') is the combat engineering forces of the Israel Defense Forces. The Combat Engineering Corps beret's color is silver and its symbol featur ...

to transport heavy engineering materials, but due to its heavy armor, sometimes used to transport troops into hostile areas.

Active brigades

* 1st Golani Brigade * 35th Paratroopers Brigade * 89th Commando Brigade * 84th Givati Brigade * 900th Kfir Brigade * 933rd Nahal Brigade

Reserve brigades

* 2nd "Carmeli" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 3rd "Alexandroni" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 5th "Sharon" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 6th "Etzioni" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 9th "Oded" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 11th "Yiftah" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 12th "Negev" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 16th "Jerusalem" (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 55th "Hod Ha-Hanit/Tip of the Spear" (Reserve) Paratroopers Brigade * 226th (Reserve) Paratroopers Brigade * 228th (Reserve) Infantry Brigade * 551st "Hetzei Ha-Esh/Arrows of Fire" (Reserve) Paratroopers Brigade * 646th "Sky Fox" (Reserve) Paratroopers Brigade

Independent battalions

*The Sword Battalion (299th), a

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

battalion (disbanded in 2015) *The (585th), a

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...

battalion *The Caracal Battalion (33rd), named after the

Caracal The caracal (''Caracal caracal'') () is a medium-sized wild cat native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and arid areas of Pakistan and northwestern India. It is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long tufted ...

cat, this is a mixed battalion that includes both male and female soldiers.

Independent units

*The

Oketz The Oketz Unit ( he, יחידת עוקץ, ''lit.'' sting), is the independent canine special forces (sayeret) unit of the Israel Defense Forces. History It was founded in 1939 as part of Haganah, and later dismantled in 1954. In 1974, a new un ...

unit ( dog handlers).

External links

Official site
{{Israel Defense Forces

Infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

Military units and formations established in 2000