A little History

The IDF although less 60 years old has learned the lessons of modern warfare well and made itself into world respected force. That is not to say it learned everything quickly or easily. One of the areas in which the IDF had a longer learning curve was its artillery corps or חיל התותחנים. While the IDF used artillery from it's inception in 1948 it wouldn't be until the post Yom kippur war of 1973 that lessons learned would really bring the Artillery Corps in doctrine, numbers and quality up to 'Modern Standards'. Today's Artillery Corps is well equipped with modern equipment from knee mortars to long range nuclear capable MLRS.

This, however, was not always the case. The IDF started off with very little in the way of artillery in 1948. Aside from a few British 3"(81mm) mortars and a few 'Nepoleonchics' there was almost no artillery to be spoken of. Eventually small numbers of SOviet WW2 style 120mm mortars, British 25pdr and 6pdr artillery would be acquired and used. Small numbers of towed US 105mm M101 and later M102 as well as M7 105mm Priests would find its way into the IDF inventory.

Western equipment wasn't the barrel types used, the frequent wars by its hostile neighbors yielded everything from WW2 M1937 122mm towed artillery to BM21 and 24 MLRS types. Sometime these pieces of equipment were obtained with large quantities of ammunition, sometimes IMI( Israeli military industries) would have to manufacture their own.

The IDF wouldn't stop there They also produced home made designs of artillery and mortars. These included towed and self propelled 155mm artillery based on a French Tube, as well as a number of Soltam designed vehicles and towed pieces like the L33.

Following some very hard leaned lessons from the Yom Kippur War the IDF strted focusing on fewer types of artillery. While the M110, M107 would be used from the 1970s into the 1980s The IDF focused on the M109 SP artillery as its main tube. in the late 80s early 90s the US Paladin version was tested and while found to be good was to expensive for the budget. The IDF instead modified its existing fleet of M109A1/2s to paladin standard.

Although the IDF had many MLRS systems, the US version gives it range and accuracy not seen before. It also allowed the IDF to retire vehicles like the M113 Lance system which are far inferior.The Artillery Corps of today is a far cry from few pieces used in 1948. It has grown and matured into a well equiped and trained force.

Just as a note in the early years the anti - aircraft units were also under the umbrella of the Artillery, although now it is under the Air- force. As long we are on the subject of notes the Anti aircraft and antitank systems will get their own reference pages. Some information will be duplicated on other vehicle pages like the Sherman artillery types. I would like to say that while these pages all contain historical information and vehicle specifications, the primary focus is for the Modeler and will written with that in mind. There are a number of sites which attempt to dabble into that often classified area. I would also take all such types of information with a grain of salt.

 

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