Its a complex ecosystem of refurbishment programs, foreign sales, museum transfers, and industrial recycling.
By Hezy Laing
For a military as technologically dynamic as the IDF, the question of what happens to aging hardware is more than a logistical curiosity — it is a strategic necessity.
Over the past four decades, the IDF has cycled through multiple generations of tanks, aircraft, armored vehicles, and artillery systems, each time facing the challenge of how to repurpose, sell, store, or dismantle equipment that has reached the end of its frontline service life.
The result is a complex ecosystem of refurbishment programs, foreign sales, museum transfers, and industrial recycling.
One of the most famous examples is the Merkava tank series.
When the IDF transitioned from the Merkava Mk.2 and Mk.3 to the more advanced Mk.4 and the new Barak variant, dozens of older hulls were not scrapped but converted into Namer and Ofek armored personnel carriers.
This conversion program, run by the Ministry of Defense and Israel Military Industries, is considered one of the most cost‑effective modernization efforts in IDF history.
Instead of discarding older tanks, the IDF transformed them into some of the world’s most heavily protected APCs.
Aircraft follow a different path.
When the IDF retired its F‑16A/B “Netz” fighters, many were sold to foreign air forces, including Croatia and the United States for aggressor training.
Others were transferred to museums or used for ground‑training purposes.
The same pattern occurred with the Kfir fighter jet in the 1990s, which was later sold to Colombia, Ecuador, and Sri Lanka.
The IDF’s aging AH‑1 Cobra helicopters were transferred to the Jordanian Air Force in 2015 as part of a regional security arrangement.
Armored vehicles such as the M113 have been gradually phased out, with hundreds scrapped, cannibalized for parts, or sold to foreign militaries in Africa and Latin America.
Some were converted into engineering vehicles or command posts.
Artillery systems like the M109 “Doher” are being replaced by the new Roem howitzer, with older units either stored in reserve or stripped for components.
Even small arms follow a lifecycle: older Galil rifles were sold abroad or donated to friendly nations, while surplus Uzi submachine guns often end up in police armories or training facilities.
In short, the IDF rarely wastes old hardware.
Whether through resale, recycling, conversion, or historical preservation, nearly every platform finds a second life — a reflection of Israel’s resourcefulness and its constant drive to modernize without discarding its past.
