IDF Preparing for the A.I. Era

The 2020 Administration, operating under the Lotem Unit of the IDF C4I Directorate, is hard at work setting up an inter-arm ERP infrastructure for the IDF logistics and personnel management activities. A special review of the operations of the 2020 Administration, which helps prepare the IDF for the future

IDF Preparing for the A.I. Era

Photo: IDF

Back in 2014, the IDF realized it could no longer rely on the existing computer infrastructures for the management of logistics and personnel activities. The solution selected was to establish an inter-arm ERP infrastructure in the context of the "Gideon" long-term program under a new administration designated "the 2020 Administration." The Administration operates under the Lotem Unit of the IDF C4I Directorate. As its name implies, it is intended to erect the infrastructure and be dissolved in the year 2020, when the next long-term program comes into effect. However, a review of the Administration's activity to this day will show that it may evolve into an inter-arm software house under the Lotem Unit, charged with the task of preparing the IDF for the era of artificial intelligence.

"The bulk of investment in computer infrastructures in the IDF is traditionally made in the operational and intelligence activities. Nevertheless, it is a world that relies on outdated infrastructures, some of which are 40 years old. Some systems were developed in the IDF three or four decades ago for 10,000 users, and now provide services to the entire IDF. What about the cyber field? Developing patches for these systems or installing software patches is a nearly impossible undertaking," they explain at the IDF C4I Directorate.

"These infrastructures have expired. From the perspective of the cyber world, it is a huge challenge. In some cases, the operating systems had been developed by the IDF in-house at the time, and today's programmers hardly know anything about Windows-XP. It is an unbridgeable gap. Maintaining the compatibility of such systems retroactively is highly problematic. Back in 2014, they understood the severity of the gap and the objective now is to upgrade the infrastructures and adapt them to the capabilities of today's programmers."

In the IDF, they describe the present situation as a "huge spaghetti mass of systems." It is a mishmash of computer systems from different periods, all of which should be synchronized and secured so as to ensure that the operational processes do not collapse. In part, this state of affairs stems from the fact that the various arms of the IDF had developed separate logistic systems, which doubled or even trebled the financial costs.

Everything is Measurable by a Key Click

"We decided to merge everything into a central SAP-based logistic infrastructure. In the IDF Navy, they started assimilating the system back in 1998, and the idea was to implement it throughout the IDF," they explain at the IDF C4I Directorate. "We are currently two and a half years into the program, having successfully completed two milestones. At the logistic level, we installed the 'DEREG NIFRAS' (= Deploying Echelon) system in 2015. This system handles the entire logistic activity at the IDF GHQ Technology & Logistics Directorate. A second milestone involved the personnel management system 'PROJECT YESSODOT' (= Foundations), which went online in October 2017 with 5,000 users. This is the first system of this type in the world on such a scope."

The change of infrastructures is not just technological but also, and probably mainly, procedural. The people of the IDF C4I Directorate explain that these processes have been in use for the past thirty years and now they are being revised. The IDF GHQ Technology & Logistics Directorate and Personnel Directorate outlined the changes of the processes through the system. One of the most substantial changes is the transition from forms to digital authorizations. With the previous configuration, the IDF had people whose sole function was to transfer forms from one place to another. "That was unnecessary bureaucracy," they explain at the IDF C4I Directorate. "The youngsters being recruited into the IDF, the regular service personnel and the reservists are all used to a certain service standard in civilian life. There is no reason why we should not provide them with the same service standard in the military.

"When you start developing a common system, the discourse changes. Initially, the idea in the IDF was to divide the ERP between the Technology & Logistics Directorate and the Personnel Directorate. This idea stemmed from ignorance regarding the advantages offered by a unified, standardized SAP system for the entire IDF. One of the first challenges we dealt with was creating a standardized bill ("tree") of terms/definitions for the entire IDF. During the establishment of the infrastructure, we realized that there were resources – logistic and personnel – associated with units that did not actually exist in the IDF. These units only existed in the information systems.

"From the moment the IDF had a common, standardized bill of terms/definitions, we no longer discuss the facts – only their implications. This changed the discourse throughout the IDF. In discussions conducted at GHQ, they understand the change and use the new system to manage processes in content worlds that are currently being prioritized – such aspects as funding, personnel and so forth. Suppose they want to know how much the management of the IDF armor layout costs. How do you calculate that? You must consider the costs of service, maintenance, personnel, outsourcing, consultants and many other parameters. Until today, they would have called in two academic reserve students who would work on the task for months, and the product would no longer be relevant at the time of submission.

"In the IDF Navy, there was a question around servicing of submarines. How do you compare service operations for different submarines separated by months or even years? The people who were responsible for one service operation have already been discharged, the spare parts have changed, and so forth. Using SAP makes it possible to compare service operations of different submarines along a time axis: which kits were actually used, what was implemented in the context of the maintenance procedures, what parts were replaced. Such a capability leads to a precise maintenance policy that also projects on the procurement of spare parts. Why buy something that you would not use? Why buy something only to discover, after a few years, that what you have in stock had expired? It is a waste of money. Efficiently running the IDF 'economies' is an objective we currently handle using the new information systems."

Another aspect of the advantage of a common ERP system is the ability to accomplish the economic goals of the Ministry of Finance. The IDF and the Ministry of Finance agreed on a higher level of transparency between the organizations. The long-term program specified the amount of personnel the IDF pledged to employ vis-à-vis the Ministry of Finance. "The objectives of the Ministry of Finance are projected to IDF GHQ through the system. We established a wage model vis-à-vis the Ministry of Finance, and from that moment we have a unified, standardized picture. The system enables the IDF Chief of Staff to view the accomplishment of the goals vis-à-vis the commitment made to the Ministry of Finance. All of a sudden you have the option of managing the resources more professionally. Everything is measurable by a key click," they explain at the IDF C4I Directorate.

"The ability to measure and monitor the resources of the entire IDF also enables a change in the command model. While in the past the commander of an IDF unit would be issued with strict instructions regarding resources, today the same commander is provided with a basket of resources he/she can manage in the most appropriate manner vis-à-vis his/her objectives. Today, a commander can divert and allocate the resources within his/her own unit. This is a substantial change for the IDF."

The Intelligence Directorate & IAF are Cooperating

What will happen in 2020?

"We will change the name," they say at the IDF C4I Directorate. "You must understand that the 2020 Administration started out as a multi-arm ERP program. Initially, the Ground Arm and the Navy participated, while the IAF and Intelligence Directorate did not support it. They were straddling the fence. Along the way, there were success stories along the logistic and personnel axis. Those success stories changed the concept. The IAF realized that instead of investing budgets in ERP development and maintenance, they should assign the responsibility to a central organ that specializes in this activity and instead, divert and allocate the budgets to core IAF activities. So we have excellent cooperation with the IAF. The same understanding permeated into the IDF Intelligence Directorate as well. We are currently engaged in a joint process in an effort to decide how to handle this, owing to the classified information normally handled by the Intelligence Directorate. Even the IDF Chief Medical Officer HQ understood the advantages and has joined the program, too.

"The cooperation is based on common standardization of resources for logistics, personnel and the operational layout, and it produces insights that had never existed in the IDF. This cooperative alliance leads to a new way of thinking. Everyone begins to realize that cooperation produces efficiency. Another aspect we started dealing with is the development of a MALSHAB (CFNS = Candidate for National Service) center. The call center of the IDF Recruitment & Personnel Selection Depot (BAKUM) handles more than a million applications from CFNSs per year. A major portion of those applications consists of requests for changes in summon dates and times. So we developed the 'Digital IDF' system that enables CFNSs to handle more issues vis-à-vis the IDF systems on their own.

"About eighteen months ago, we started taking processes outside of the IDF walls. Without planning it in advance, the digital activity evolved into a significant activity of the 2020 Administration, and today we have two primary development axes – the ERP and the digital activity. We decided to take more processes out to the digital activity. The client may be a CFNS, a regular serviceman, a civilian, a pensioner and so forth. If everyone is on the web and you are not there – you will become an irrelevant organization. The digital activity enables management of electronic forms. This process made the utilization of IDF recruitment sources more efficient, as you have a whole population of people you can improve. This provides the IDF with a lot of information they did not possess before."

The Next Stage: Gaining Insights from the Data

After the Administration created a standardized bill of terms/definitions for the entire IDF and stored the data under that bill in a usable format, they now want to move on to the next stage – gaining insights from the data. "We can sense it at the tips of our fingers," they say at the IDF C4I Directorate. "We have the data of the entire IDF from the last forty years at the very least. Extracting information through such tools as data mining, machine learning, and artificial intelligence is the next stage in the evolutionary process.

"One of the directions involves predictive maintenance for systems and setups. The future ground platforms will belong to the IoT category. Each assembly of the platform will convey data, through the data highway, directly into the ERP system and this would enable predictive maintenance. Another activity involves more accurate forecasting of success probability rates prior to the recruitment of CFNSs. We want to be able to spot, in advance, those with the best chance of successfully completing officer training in specific occupational skills. Today, the IDF uses a 'dry' analysis of data that was good back in the 1980s. We want to find contexts in the data that would correctly forecast the military career of the CFNS.

"These are the research questions that will be of interest to us. For this purpose, we are training content specialists to develop a business core within the Administration. As this is the military, you cannot take all of the data analysis activities outside, owing to confidentiality considerations. These content specialists will have to find the research questions that would provide the IDF with an advantage in the coming decades, along with the IDF arms that would tell us what the operational or economic challenges are. In the near future, the status picture presented to the IDF General Staff for various aspects will be based on the analysis of data from the ERP system. We have passed the stage of discussing reality. This is the reality. Now let's address it and gain insights from it.

"Yes, we expect tension between the insights from the information systems and the human command echelon of the IDF, which would come up with their own insights. This will always be the case. It is the same in business organizations. It becomes even more acute with regard to such artificial intelligence systems as 'HEDEK CHACHAM' (= Smart Trigger). Would you allow this system to fire? These questions pertain to how much you rely on the information systems. There is an interval of deliberation, determined by the fact that your enemy does not currently possess such systems. The moment your enemy has such systems – you will have no choice. "