IDF commander: integrated AI, big data changed the game during war with Iran
IDF commander: integrated AI, big data changed the game during war with Iran
https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-894775
Publish Date: 2026-05-02 14:26:00
Source Domain: www.jpost.com
Matzpen, the IDF unit most responsible for integrating and relaying artificial intelligence and “big data” intelligence across the military, played a critical role in transforming the air force’s effectiveness during the recent war with Iran, its commander, Col. Rotem Beshi, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
A new system managed by Matzpen, known as the LOCHEM system, handled all the planning for attacks on Iran, starting with working with the air force’s special, relatively new Iran unit, said Beshi, 38.
According to Beshi, during the war, Matzpen’s digital applications and processes “helped decide priorities and helped integrate the planning of whole waves of attacks.”
He said that gathering certain data to make operational decisions, which used to take days, can be done in hours, or in some cases, minutes, and that Matzpen is pushing to get nearly all the processes that connect to emergent situations down to minutes.
Part of this process was sped up by the formation of a brigade-sized IDF unit, announced in December, to address the spread of artificial intelligence use across the military, including the Matzpen unit.
A technologist with the Israeli military’s Matzpen operational data and applications unit works at her station, at an IDF base in Ramat Gan, Israel. (credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS)
All of these units are part of the Communications and Cyber Defense Command, headed by Maj.-Gen. Aviad Dagan.
Matzpen could be working on a couple of dozen new applications at a time to improve the military’s offensive and defensive capacities.
The work is integral to all of the military’s major successes
If in the recent past, developing complex new applications to confront new challenges took months or years, now the military develops new programs much more rapidly.
Overall, Beshi’s goal is for IDF field commanders to feel they are dealing with a familiar, user-friendly technological world that empowers them to better carry out the war’s…
