How do Air Force pilots know where to strike? Who pinpoints and prioritizes target locations? You’ll find the answers (though they won’t tell you themselves…) with the target personnel of AMAN and Sanctum, who in recent months have increased the target bank against Iran by hundreds of percent.
In routine times, they are involved in determining, managing, and directing intelligence targets for attack. Generally, this is a body that leads the development of methods and technology for producing targets on a large scale, and for streamlining intelligence efforts to locate enemy positions and weaponry. In an emergency, however, the arena changes form and activates the “Target Center”: a unique organization for combat situations and intensive fire operations.
So recently, with great secrecy, regular, career, and reserve personnel from various AMAN units were drafted to build an updated, comprehensive, and accurate target bank in preparation for the operation against Iran. Their work was significantly accelerated in the past two months, in light of the dramatic strategic developments observed against the terror regime.
This intelligence effort began two weeks after the end of ‘Operation Lionheart’. Based on the operation’s debriefings, AMAN underwent an accelerated and in-depth learning process, and advanced intelligence gathering and processing capabilities were improved in terms of real-time target detection, analysis, and prioritization.
Following the lessons learned, a unique organization was established, which in less than six months – increased by hundreds of percent the number of targets AMAN holds against the terror regime in Iran. Among these were: missile targets, regime infrastructure, enemy military industries, regime suppression elements, and nuclear targets. Groundbreaking technologies were allocated to this effort, leading to an unprecedented enrichment of the database in scope and pace.
Furthermore, in order to enable a leap forward in the effectiveness of fire operations, the lethality, and the precision of Air Force sorties, the joint multi-branch processes with AMAN and the Air Force were strengthened. Concurrently, surveillance of developments in the arena was intensified, and AMAN’s collection and analysis tools were adapted to the changing dynamics, with the aim of maintaining intelligence superiority.
And speaking of connections, the Target Center advanced an initiative for coordination and sharing of targets with American intelligence organizations. This has been a crucial focal point for the current campaign, enabling an unprecedentedly synchronized campaign management.
The extensive target bank, which reached the ‘plan approval’ stages even before ‘Roaring Lion’ was launched, provided the IDF with a strong and critical starting point, leading to significant operational successes. Some of these we are already witnessing.