Israeli forces will increasingly be fighting on battlefields that are more difficult to negotiate, more uncertain in terms of situational awareness and sometimes more lethal than has been the case in recent conflicts. Commanders will overcome these challenges with new tactics, greater use of interservice cooperation and technologies that permit rapid changes in battle tactics.

This was a key point to emerge from the third annual Latrun Conference on ground warfare, presented by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), U.S. Joint Forces Command and Israeli defense contractors here last month.

The main theme of the conference was “Maneuver in Complex Terrain,” a reference to the need to deploy ground forces decisively for victory.

Speakers discussed the changing nature of regional and local conflicts and their impact on infantry. One notable development is “hybrid warfare,” in which an enemy wages a guerrilla war with advanced weapons such as precision-guided rockets and missiles and cyber capabilities. He fights in diffused networks of small cells and presents an elusive target, against which conventional firepower and tactics are largely ineffective without constant real-time intelligence updates.

It’s not an entirely new concept, of course. To some attendees it sounded like a derivative of the insurgencies waged during the Cold War. The difference, though, is in the advanced weapons that combatants use and the sophisticated training they receive from regional patrons. Some speakers believe hybrid warfare is a more precise term than asymmetric warfare in describing some insurgencies.

If so, then the first hybrid conflict fought in the Middle East was by Iranian-backed Hezbollah against the IDF during the Second Lebanon War of 2006. Hezbollah confronted Merkava tanks with an array of lethal precision missiles that challenged Israel’s military superiority. Skillfully using urban and complex terrain and hiding in large tunnel networks, the group mustered an array of weapons and tactics and generally withstood the IDF.

The IDF has come a long way since, reorganizing ground forces and devising new war-fighting concepts. Its experience is applicable to other industrialized militaries, notably the U.S. and NATO allies, which confront a similar situation in Afghanistan.

Perhaps the biggest Israeli interservice transformation to arise from the Lebanon war is the concept of close air support, which changed the nature of ground maneuver, creating almost full participation of the air element in land operations. Acting as an integrated partner at the tactical level, the new air force fire-and-maneuver concept proved effective in its first use during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January.

As noted at the conference, the Israel Air Force (IAF) now participates in planning and training with ground forces. Both services operate as partners, learning to cooperate, creating a common tactical language and understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses in combat.

The IAF developed the Full Air Support Suite, which is integrated into the tactical ground force by a forward air controller (FAC) team manned by veteran pilots. Having trained with ground forces throughout the pre-mission phase, airmen understand mission goals and support the maneuver with the best choice of platforms and ordnance for maximum effect during an operation. The FAC team moves side-by-side with the tactical ground commander and is connected to the digital communication network. It can monitor every step of the mission and use its decision-making authority to intervene with the best support available. Precision fire from airborne assets can be a decisive element during a critical situation.