Why does the need exist?

As of October 6th, 2023 there were 170,000 active duty soldiers serving in the IDF. By October 10th, the army had drafted an additional 360,000 reservists who reported for full-time reserve duty. Arriving to base wearing only their uniforms, they waited to be given the necessary gear for their missions. 

With each unit's population rapidly tripling, the logistics team provided basic, often outdated equipment from the storage units. No one could imagine that over a year later, we'd still be actively fighting on seven fronts during Israel's longest war. 

As the war has progressed, the military has been forced to prioritize certain expenditures over others. For example, every rocket interception by the Iron Dome costs $40,000. With tens of thousands of missiles shot down since the beginning of the war, you can do the math. The air force has successfully decimated large caches of long-range missiles in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen; our combat engineers have destroyed hundreds of miles of tunnels in Gaza and up north; clearly, there are urgent expenses.

This is not to say the individual soldiers on the ground aren’t important to the IDF. Sometimes though, their need for updated, quality equipment that’s designed for continuous fighting on an active battlefield falls through the cracks.