First Ever All-Female IDF Tank Crew to Be Deployed Alongside Egyptian Border

 A company of all-women tank operators will be stationed along the Egyptian border next month for the first time in the military’s history as part of an ongoing pilot program to assess the feasibility of female armored crews. The female tank crews are currently completing their training at the IDF’s Shizafon Base in the Negev desert, which houses the military’s Armored Corps School. After a short break, they will then be sent into the command of the mixed-gender Caracal Battalion, which defends the northern portion of Israel’s border with Egypt.

According to the commander of the Caracal Battalion, Lt. Col. Erez Shabtai, in addition to being the IDF’s first active deployment of female tank operators, this will also make his the IDF’s first infantry unit to have tanks directly under its control. She says that this is highly significant. Everyone is going to be watching them.

This became prominent when in March, eight female soldiers from the border troops completed their training for service in a tank unit. A total of 19 female IDF employees have taken this course since November 2020. Even the military launched a new pilot programme to consider allowing female to serve in tank crews, after an initial trial from 2017 to 2018 was considered ineffective.

 Shabtai further added that the armored company will initially be led by an infantry officer who underwent training to “convert” into a tank commander. Also there has been a significant change in the order of reporting as well. The tank company commander will answer directly to the head of the Caracal Battalion. Elsewhere in the IDF, while Armored Corps units and Infantry Corps units often serve closely together, they are kept separate, with distinct hierarchical structures.