Entering the Israeli Air Force's Hatzor Base, one might think nothing has changed in recent years. But as you proceed into the heart of the base, it becomes clear that what was will never be the same again.
The base is busier than ever, and encounters with younger and older soldiers alike testify that we are in the midst of war. This young generation, whom we promised would know no more wars, has been busy protecting the homeland for 15 months now, just like that.
A decade ago, I was here for an Independence Day story, trying out the simulator that pilots use to maintain operational readiness in case they need to respond quickly. Since then, our world has been turned upside down, and suddenly, alongside training and long hours in the simulator, it seems our pilots are logging the same hours in the real thing, in the skies of the Middle East.
Along with the change in spirit, the base will soon see a material change as well. A new facility being built these days will allow for more simulator work and diversify pilots' training, enabling them to work in larger formations and accommodate more aircrew members. Its construction will be completed in the coming years, and likely all those children who were promised there would be no more wars by the time they grew up will be using this simulator, further widening the gap between the blue and white Air Force and air forces across much of the Western world, certainly in the Middle East.
At the entrance to MTC (Mission Training Center), its commander, Major T, awaits us. A kippah on his head, a smile on his face, and above all, much patience for a reporter who's about to climb into an F-15 simulator for the second time in his life and, as usual, embarrass himself. From T's words, who participated in the strike on Iran, one can understand that with each such strike, they improve in the simulator as well, as it allows them to better understand the topography of each location, including places no one imagined we would be (Sanaa, for example).
This is exactly the discussion that will accompany us during our visit to MTC: How much can the simulator, especially in the AI era, simulate that real feeling of war that we've been in for 15 months with no end in sight. "Look, there are many advantages to the simulator, and over the years it really keeps improving," T explains.
"I'll clarify – in fact, in the simulator you can reach extreme situations that the chance of them happening in real training or combat is very small, but you can turn the simulator into one that constantly puts you in these extreme situations. Indeed, it happened more than once in the past year that soldiers returned from distant and near operations and the first thing they said was 'wow, it's just like in the simulator,' or alternatively presented us with things related to improving the simulator."
Squadron Commander Lieutenant Colonel A, who participated in a strike in Yemen, joins the conversation as we begin walking toward the simulator: "Besides the clear advantages of training, beyond what the simulator can provide 24 hours a day, first we must remember the financial costs as well. In the end, there's savings of hundreds of millions for the army of course, especially in the period we're in now. You can't train at any moment and in any situation, but in the simulator it's possible."
"October 7 wasn't in the simulator"
I ask A how much the simulator really simulates what's been happening here in the past year, because after all, good as it may be, no one could have predicted the October 7 tragedy. "First of all, true, October 7 was something that didn't appear in any simulator," he says. "I think all of us, like the entire army, understood and learned from what happened there, and since then the situation has completely changed, and from what happened there we're all trying to learn. Another thing, physiologically the simulator can't simulate of course the feeling of encountering G-force – that's something you can only experience when you're in the air. Perhaps in the future these are the dramatic changes that will be in the simulator, in my opinion, if they manage to incorporate them, that physical experience."
When I get on the simulator, the commanders won't let me "fly" in other countries' territory, and I have to take off from Israel and stay within the country's boundaries. They'll make sure foreign aircraft "infiltrate here" and attack me, although after what happened here in the past year, what enemy aircraft can still attack me? In the simulator there are no Gazans on donkeys wearing flip-flops, but still I'm "attacked by foreign forces," and as usual finish the simulator at a level that A defines as "barely flight school material." I don't know, I feel I was excellent, especially in the turns I took and the exercises I did, but T explains to me that I took a turn like a "transport plane and not a fighter jet."
I explain to him that like parking in Tel Aviv, I entered carefully not to hit the car in front and behind. They almost laugh. Fortunately, I finish the matter without vertigo, and I also managed to drop fragments over the sea and not hit civilian population. You can continue sleeping peacefully, there are those watching over you.
Another thing that isn't in the simulator, or at least wasn't shown to me, is the drone threat. The different sizes, different confrontations that the Air Force faces since Hezbollah and the Houthis entered the battle, force the entire security system in all its shades to respond quickly.
"We know how to bring the data to Elbit, and during the war we learned how quickly they know how to write code that will deal with the threat of drones in different sizes," explains T. "This allows the entire system, including the simulator, to deal with things differently and more efficiently, and of course together with the data that pilots bring from the field we know how to improve during the war."
Following progress
With AI entering our world, the question arises where this field is going regarding the battlefield, especially when we're talking about simulators. When we meet female soldiers who can recite by heart the entire structure of the aircraft and its capabilities, we ask where this knowledge will go as technology develops: "That's the question," says T, "I assume we don't know how to answer that yet."
A, for his part, strongly argues that "there is and will be no substitute for human experience, with all due respect to the simulator, when you're in the sky physically, bodily, mentally – everything looks different. True, the simulator prepares you for extreme situations, and then even in mentally difficult situations when you're in the air you know how to react calmly, because you trained in the simulator, but there are still events that occur in the battlefield and the simulator doesn't simulate them, for example if God forbid you need to make a decision related to ejecting from the aircraft, in the end in the simulator it's not like the real thing, because when you're there alone the decisions made are different."
I don't know if this public relations tour was meant to strengthen the confidence we all have in the excellent people who shake our houses every evening ("Really sorry we're rushing to the target," A laughs at me), or to restore our lost faith in everything related to the state and army in the past year. Either way, cynicism aside, in Hatzor you meet the best men and women this country has to offer.
Even if it seems that sometimes the fondness for action and battles is what drives people here, and in the aircraft they feel disconnected somewhere in the clouds, which doesn't exist, of course, when you're deep on the scorched earth in Gaza. Still, at the end of the day, when the skies began to rumble again, the feeling is that there's someone to rely on. And that's not little in the situation this country is in right now.
