The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is standing up a new AI Division that will consolidate existing disparate AI operations under a single military command while also serving as a “living bridge” to AI experts in industry via a new reserve unit called AIDF. The move highlights the increasing importance of AI in military operations.
AI is increasingly an enabler of Israeli-made innovations with military applications. For example, the Israeli company Skana Robotics said its new AI “brain” called SeaSphere enables long-range underwater communication between drones so they no longer have to surface to relay information. SeaSphere would make coordination of a swarm of autonomous underwater drones feasible. Underwater communication has been previously limited because radio waves lose power quickly in seawater and acoustic signals are limited by range, speed and interference. The Skana system is scheduled for robust testing in 2026.
Similarly, Peridot Night is an AI-driven situational awareness tool developed by Maris-Tech that combines the images from a high definition camera with three thermal sensors to create 360-degree threat assessments for armored vehicles.
According to Israeli published reports, the AI Division, named Bina (Hebrew for intelligence), is under the control of the C4I Directorate which heads up the country’s cyberdefense operations. The AIDF group is meant to be available across many military branches to help develop AI solutions to specific arenas of operation that may not have had them previously. AIDF formalizes the tech talent pool.
The AIDF initiative echoes the creation of U.S Army’s Detachment 201, a collection of part-time tech reservists with full time jobs in the tech sector formed in June. AIDF will have about 100 members to start but will likely expand. AIDF came about when C4I commanders realized that civilian reservists often already possessed solutions to IDF tech problems.
AI has been a key element in IDF operations for some time. Among the AI tools the IDF reportedly used in Gaza is a targeting system called the “Gospel” tied to Lavender, an AI-powered database of Hamas-linked individuals. The AI system allegedly could produce 100 bombing targets in a day while a human operator might labor to produce 50 in a year. Much of the AI tasking had previously been handled by Unit 8200, the IDF’s elite intelligence unit.
The next step, according to “Lt. Col N.,” a C4I officer quoted by the Jerusalem Post, is for AI to analyze masses of video content to provide an overall alarm to detect incidents like the October 7 terrorist attack.
Also on the AI Division’s to-do list is the ability to transcribe IDF networks communications into text transcripts within seconds so mobile platforms like tanks and aircraft can be managed more efficiently.
The overall goal, as one Israeli general put it in an echo of Bible accounts of multiplication miracles, is to use technology “to turn one tank into 100 tanks, one soldier into 100 fighters.”
