A state that is an army. Israel is building a weapon that the world envies

The Israeli armed forces, Cahal, have just over 180,000 soldiers. It's about as many as four times more populous Poland managed to achieve in 2023. If Israel were a member of NATO, it would be the alliance's leader in defense spending, allocating 4.5 percent of GDP for this purpose.

This index, at its peak – in 1980 – reached an unimaginable level of 24 percent of GDP. For comparison, Poland currently spends about 2.4 percent of GDP on defense.

This translates to a defense budget of over 23 billion dollars. That's almost seven billion more than in Poland's case. Combined with a developed domestic defense sector and assistance from the USA, these funds allow for the equipping of the armed forces with the most modern, sometimes even exceptional on a global scale, equipment.

It's not just the money for the army and modern weaponry that testify to the power of the Cahal. The crucial factor here is a capability that most European countries - excluding Finland, Sweden, or Switzerland - might envy Israel for.

These are huge mobilization possibilities, enhanced by the fact that mandatory military service applies to all citizens regardless of gender. As a result, a mere 9-million-strong country has at its disposal approximately 450,000 reservists and - in total - about 2.5 million trained citizens.

Poland theoretically has 1.7 million of them, however, this is fiction - in practice, half are over 51 years old, and the youngest were trained in 2010. It is worth mentioning that more intensive training of reservists, also from so-called passive reserve - without prior contact with the military - only began in Poland last year.

The Hamas attack demonstrated how efficient Israel's mobilization system is. Within just a few hours, the IDF was bolstered by 100,000 reservists, which allowed for the immediate deployment of fully staffed, ready-to-act brigades later that same day.

For many years, the weapons of the Israeli army were a real mix of equipment from various parts of the world. Even in the 70s of the 20th century, Israel used modernized Sherman tanks, reminiscent of World War II times or their own version of the French Dassault Mirage 5 aircraft, named IAI Kfir.

Currently, the Israeli armed forces have numerous models of the latest weapons, which are a product of domestic industry and constructed with the specifics of the Middle Eastern battlefield in mind. A flagship example are the Merkava tanks with their unusual design layout, where the engine of the vehicle is located in front, providing additional cover for the crew.

The construction of the Eitan armored transporters has also been subordinated to maximize protection, which - although on wheels - in an armored variant can weigh as much as 38.6 US tons.

While Merkava and Eitan are somewhat typical equipment, despite their specifics, Israel also builds weapons that have no counterparts in the world. It is worth noting that Israel has equipment designed for combat in, for example, dense buildings, which can be extremely important, for example, in the case of a ground attack on the Gaza Strip.

Another example are the unique, globally recognized, Namer armored infantry fighting vehicles – the heaviest armored vehicles of this type in the world. These are specific structures, built on the basis of the Merkava tank and designed for combat in an environment heavily saturated with anti-tank defenses.

An example of Israeli specificity includes the Nagmachon vehicles, which look like a fortress on tracks. They were built with an asymmetric conflict in mind, where handheld grenade launchers or Molotov cocktails are a bigger threat than, say, enemy tanks. Armored and armed bulldozers, used among other things for demolishing Arab settlements, could supplement this equipment.

One of the more interesting pieces of Israeli weaponry was the Pereh tank destroyer, which was decommissioned in 2017. It was an armored launcher of guided anti-tank missiles that was camouflaged to look like an old Magach tank (Israeli version of the American M60).

When Israel orders weapons from abroad, they are modified to suit its own needs. A good example here is the Israeli Sa’ar 6 missile corvettes built in Germany, based on the same project - MEKO 100 - as the Polish ORP Ślązak.

After nearly two decades, the Polish navy received a 308-foot, lightly armed patrol ship, spending a similar amount (for one ship) as Israel acquired four 295-foot, possibly the most heavily armed corvettes in the world. The units acquired by Israel were equipped with 76 mm caliber guns, 25 mm caliber self-defense artillery systems, 32 vertical launchers for Barak 8 missiles, C-Dome self-defense systems, torpedo launchers and 16 RGM-84 Harpoon Block II/IAI Gabriel V anti-ship missiles.

Also noteworthy are Israeli export hits. Among them are anti-tank guided missiles Spike (also built in Poland), anti-aircraft missiles Barak (Barak MX recently purchased by Slovakia), the anti-ballistic system Chec 3 (ordered by Germany), or countless military drones of various purposes.

The world's attention is also drawn to the Israeli anti-missile shield Iron Dome, as well as its futuristic component - Iron Beam laser, thanks to which the destruction of small drones or different rocket projectiles will be not only efficient, but also very cheap.

The Trophy system, which provides active protection for armored vehicles against incoming missiles, is also popular worldwide. This solution is used on some versions of American Abrams tanks as well as on German Leopard 2s and Israeli Merkavas.

It is worth noting that the destruction of at least one of them by Hamas does not prove the ineffectiveness of the Trophy. The tank was probably hit when the system was turned off due to the presence of soldiers outside the vehicle.

An equally important role in the Israeli army is played by what isn't seen. It's about software, such as the Battle Management System (BMS) developed by Israeli firm Elbit. It provides commanders with a real-time view of the battlefield, with marked positions of their own and enemy soldiers or vehicles. Importantly, the system integrates data from numerous different sensors.

This system, regardless of its advancement and effectiveness, became the cause of an international scandal a few years ago. Purchased by Australia, it turned out - as one commentator mockingly put it - to be the most advanced system of its kind in the world, because it transmitted information about the battlefield simultaneously to the Australian, but also the Israeli command.

The fact that Israel takes the issue of software so seriously is clearly evidenced by the fact that it is - alongside Turkey - the only country in the world with access to the source codes for the avionics of F-16 aircraft. In practice, this means that Israel not only has control over the flow of information, but can also independently integrate various types of weaponry with the aircraft.

We are dealing with a similar situation when it comes to F-35 planes. When other countries, such as Poland, simply purchase Lightning II in the F-35A version or - like Great Britain - the F-35B, Israel has its own variant of this aircraft. For Israeli needs, a modified F-35I Adir was created, built using equipment and electronics supplied by Elbit.

The development of the Israeli defense sector and the construction of so many types of advanced weapons probably would not have been possible without the help of the United States. Although the war in Ukraine has slightly shaken the proportions, since 1976, Israel has been consistently the largest beneficiary of U.S. military aid, receiving on average over $3 billion each year in various forms.

This applies to both equipment and resources, which - invested in the development of the defense sector - have yielded many times the return over the decades and turned a small US ally in the Middle East into a major player in the global arms market.