IDF Combat Readiness Review Shows Lessons Learned

After October 7’s wake-up call, the army’s surprise drills and self-scrutiny signal a new era of vigilance, resilience, and renewal

I have said it here before, and I will say it again: I have long admired the Israel Defense Forces – not in some abstract, distant way, but as someone who has followed its history closely, celebrated its victories, and studied the quiet ways it has helped shape the technological miracle we call modern Israel. I often joke that I’m an ‘IDF historian’, not because I wear a uniform, but because for decades I have paid attention.

That is why October 7 hit me differently. As I watched the massacre unfold on television, two questions struck me immediately – questions I knew were loaded and unlikely to receive a simple answer. Was the IDF taken completely by surprise? And when was the last time it had conducted a comprehensive “combat readiness” assessment for all its units?

These were not idle curiosities. They were the questions of someone who had always believed in the IDF’s preparedness, only now faced with the first cracks in that faith. Even in the days that followed, I could not ignore the palpable confusion and decision-making missteps. How, I asked myself again and again, could thousands of Israelis in the south be left so exposed to the murderous rampage of Hamas?

And so, when Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF Chief of Staff, announced plans for a sweeping review of the military’s combat readiness – not just on paper, but through unannounced drills and real-time stress tests – I welcomed it. This, I thought, is not an exercise in public relations. This is a sensible, overdue move.

Zamir’s recent “Dawn” readiness test was no ordinary drill. Senior commanders from the Air Force, Navy, Technology and Logistics, and multiple regional commands were pulled from their homes without warning. The goal: recreate the chaos of a multi-front surprise attack and measure in minutes, not hours, how quickly the IDF could respond.

For two hours, scenarios unfolded that no longer feel hypothetical: terrorist infiltrations, rocket fire from Gaza, ballistic missiles from Iran. The test was not just about moving troops and aircraft; it was about forming a clear operational picture fast enough to make life-or-death deployment decisions.

The results have been encouraging, if not perfect. One senior officer said bluntly, “I did not see failures or disasters like on October 7.” But he also acknowledged the complexity of moving massive forces in the air and on the ground, to the eastern border in a short time. The takeaway was clear: sharpen procedures, speed up decision-making, and ensure every command knows not just its role, but how it fits into the whole picture.

The fact is that this kind of soul-searching does not come easily to any military, least of all one as battle-tested as the IDF. But October 7 was not just a bad day; it was the deadliest day in Israel’s history. It revealed flaws that must be faced head-on – especially in intelligence gathering, inter-branch communication, and rapid deployment.

Reports since have painted a sobering picture: an air force caught with few planes ready, commanders learning key details from the news rather than from their own war rooms, surveillance systems down or too easily destroyed, and frontline bases like Nahal Oz left vulnerable. These are hard truths to absorb for those of us who have always held the IDF as a model of readiness.

And yet, this is where resilience and renewal become more than just words. Renewal requires honesty, the willingness to acknowledge not just the heroism that followed October 7, but the unpreparedness that preceded it. Resilience means taking that reckoning and using it to innovate, to adapt, and to ensure the same mistakes are never repeated.

When we talk about innovating the future of Israel, we often point to startups, apps, or groundbreaking medical research. But innovation is equally vital in the defense realm. The IDF’s readiness assessment is itself a form of innovation: taking lessons learned under fire and stress-testing them under controlled conditions.

Consider the unannounced nature of Zamir’s drill. It mirrored the uncertainty of real war, forcing commanders to think and act without the comfort of preparation. It simulated the fog of incomplete information and the urgency of deciding with minutes to spare. In many ways, it is the military equivalent of the agile development cycle in tech: test, fail small, adjust, and improve.

This is not just about faster deployment or better maps. It is about integrating every branch – air, land, sea, cyber – into a single, responsive system. It is about ensuring that the intelligence coming in from a drone operator in the south can be instantly acted upon by a naval commander in the north or an air squadron halfway across the country.

We sometimes forget that the IDF is not an abstract force. It is our children, our neighbours, the person behind us in the supermarket line. They are trained, yes, but they are also human, and they depend on systems that must work flawlessly under stress.

This is why readiness reviews matter. They are not a sign of weakness; they are a sign of maturity. No military, however powerful, can afford to assume it is ready simply because it has been in past battles. Readiness is a moving target, especially in a security environment as fluid and volatile as Israel’s.

I welcome the IDF’s combat readiness assessment not just because it might prevent another October 7, but because it signals a cultural shift. It says: We will not wait for another wake-up call. We will challenge ourselves now, when the cost is only lost sleep and fuel for drills, not lost lives.

And I hope this becomes a habit. Just as tech companies run “red team” exercises to test their systems against hackers, the IDF should make surprise readiness drills a permanent fixture. Because the threats Israel faces from Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and from unexpected quarters are not going away.

In the end, what I see in this moment is not despair but determination. The same institution that stumbled on October 7 is now examining itself with a rigour I find both necessary and hopeful. If that process is sustained, if lessons are not just learned but embedded into daily practice, then this will not just be an exercise in damage control. It will be a turning point.

So, to Lt.-Gen. Zamir and every soldier, commander, and analyst who took part in the “Dawn” drill: Kol hakavod. May this be the beginning of a new era of readiness, one rooted in the humility to admit shortcomings, the discipline to address them, and the innovation to anticipate the next challenge before it arrives.