June 11, 2025: For 52 years the United States and Israel have cooperated on examining their combat experiences and the performance of weapons and tactics used. These activities had a direct impact on the development of current American and Israeli weapons and tactics. This influenced U.S. combat operations during this period and can still be seen as new developments are revealed.

The primary American military equipment, including small arms and major systems like tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, attack and transport helicopters, anti-aircraft systems, electronic warfare equipment and a growing number of specialized systems.

These include laser drone interceptors. Work on such systems has been underway for decades. Finally, in 2025 the Department of Defense came up with a system that worked. It performed well in recent combat tests and went into mass production this year. Another specialized system was the Israeli Trophy Active Protection System/APS. Trophy provides protection from Anti-Tank Guided Missiles, RPG rocket propelled grenades and shells from tank guns or artillery that often fire such shells equipped with shaped charge warheads.

Trophy is considered the most useful and combat proven APS and over 4,000 systems have been installed or are on order for Israeli, American and many NATO member armored vehicles. The addition of Trophy adds about a ton to the weight of a tank.

Another novel Israeli contribution is the D9 combat bulldozer. First developed and used in 2006, the remote control D9 has become more capable as Israel added remote control and autonomous vehicle technology. Israel is a leader in this field and new developments tend to spread to all sorts of remote-controlled vehicles. The new tech provides the remote operator with more reliable and precise control over the unmanned D9 and better images of what could be seen from that D9.

The D9 had already gone through several major upgrades, especially when it came to better protection for the two-man crew and the most vulnerable components. An early addition was a cage of steel bars around the operator cab to defeat RPG warheads.

The cab was already armored, including bullet and blast proof glass. The crew seats were upgraded to include protection from the blast force pressure of bombs adjacent to or under the vehicle. The D9 is built to survive such explosions, but the crew need additional protection as well. This comes in the form of seats designed to absorb most of the blast vibration, which would otherwise put the crew at risk for spinal and shock injuries.

The remote- control version of the D9 was developed in 2006. Remote controlled D9s retain the armor kit but, instead of an operator, the cab contains the electronics and radio gear needed to run the dozer remotely. Several cameras and other sensors are mounted on the outside. An operator, sitting in a nearby armored vehicle or truck, views several flat screen displays, and operates the controls. Any soldiers with lots of video game experience can quickly master remote operation of a D9.

In early 2003, the U.S. brought nine 62-ton D9 armored Caterpillar bulldozers into Kuwait for the Iraq campaign. The D9s, and their Israeli made armor kit, were purchased because of Israeli success with the dozer in urban warfare against Palestinian terrorists. America had used the D9 during the 1960s in Vietnam, but after that only used the smaller 35 ton D7. The D9 was not needed for urban fighting in Iraq during 2003, but was found very useful, much more so than the smaller D7, for combat engineering tasks. The D9 quickly cleared highways of debris and built temporary roads for combat vehicles. D9s were eventually used in Iraq for combat operations in urban areas like Fallujah. The U.S. developed remote control systems for it and several types of armored vehicles.

During the Iraq War, improvised explosive devices/IEDs produced most American casualties. The solution was electronic transmitters to detonate most of the IEDs while putting the troops in MRAP armored trucks. MRAP stands for Mine Resistant Armour Protected and that’s what the trucks were. After the war, the U.S. donated most of its thousands of MRAPS to foreign aid groups that operated in dangerous areas. There, MRAPS continued to save the lives of aid workers as well as the starving people receiving the food transported through hostile territory in MRAPS.

Since Israel is perpetually defending itself from hostile neighbors, they have developed computer-controlled battle management systems to keep track of hostile forces and make the most efficient use of available weapons and troops. On an individual level, Israelis developed novel uses for miniature video cameras. They gave the tank crew continuous views of what was outside their vehicle. Adding shot-spotting systems let the crew know where rifle and machine-guns fire was coming from.

Now more powerful miniaturized computer systems use Artificial Intelligence to rapidly make decisions on using which weapon for which target and when. This is happening so fast that the only control a human operator has is an on/off switch or the ability to manipulate the tempo, intensity and frequency of system use. It’s reached the point where AI combat systems can outthink human combatants and react much more quickly.

Overall, rapid adaptation is the key to survival, as the Israelis and Ukrainians are demonstrating daily.