By coordinating aerial, ground and maritime systems, the new branch will standardize procurement, training, doctrine and deployment, allowing autonomous platforms to operate alongside regular forces.
By Hezy Laing
For generations, Israel’s military has been built around three familiar fighting arms: ground forces, the Israeli Air Force and the Navy.
But the battlefield that emerged during years of drone warfare, precision strikes and rapid advances in artificial intelligence is forcing the IDF to rethink what a “soldier” actually is.
Now, Israel is preparing to add something very different to its military architecture: a dedicated branch for artificial intelligence and unmanned systems.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has moved to establish a new branch responsible for technologies that can operate without putting soldiers directly in harm’s way.
The planned framework would bring together capabilities spanning the air, land and maritime domains, turning machines from supporting tools into an increasingly central component of combat power.
The change reflects a transformation already underway on Israel’s battlefields.
Unmanned aerial vehicles have become indispensable for intelligence, surveillance and attack, while unmanned ground vehicles can perform missions ranging from reconnaissance to engineering and logistics.
Israel has also developed autonomous and remotely operated systems such as the Guardium unmanned ground vehicle, while robotic platforms have been incorporated into combat-engineering missions.
In 2024, then-Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Zamir warned that future battlefields could feature “swarms of mixed combat units” in which humans and unmanned systems fight alongside one another.
He predicted that within 10 to 15 years AI-powered robots operating on land, at sea and in the air could dominate a fully networked battlefield.
The change is coming much faster than expected.
AI and robots are already part of the IDF’s warfighting toolkit.
The new branch is intended to make them a much more systematic part of everyday military operations.
By coordinating aerial, ground and maritime systems, it could standardize procurement, training, doctrine and deployment, allowing autonomous platforms to operate alongside regular forces.
It should also accelerate battlefield testing and integration, while giving commanders dedicated expertise to determine where human oversight remains essential.
Israel is not alone in recognizing the shift.
The war in Ukraine has demonstrated how inexpensive drones, autonomous navigation and robotic logistics can reshape combat, while China is now aggressively investigating military applications for humanoid robots and other autonomous systems.
For the IDF, however, the significance goes beyond acquiring another weapons system.
Creating a dedicated branch signals that robots and AI are no longer merely technological accessories to Israel’s military—they are becoming a fighting force in their own right.
