IDF to Test Female Tank Crew Pilot Outside the Armored Corps After Rabbinical Backlash

The IDF has decided that its pilot for integrating female combat soldiers into tank warfare will be run outside the Armored Corps, in the Border Defense array. According to ynet, the pilot will be gender-separate, with no men in the tank or the company, while the Armored Corps will provide professional guidance.

The decision was made in a meeting chaired by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, amid ongoing disputes over women serving in armor and pressure from rabbis and religious figures inside and outside the military. The arrangement is meant to move the experiment forward without changing the structure of regular armor brigades for now, while addressing sensitivities raised in internal IDF discussions.

Zamir set two core conditions for success, full compliance with every professional qualification required of an armored fighter, with no operational shortcuts, and the ability to build a combat framework that preserves both operational readiness and rules for mixed service. The physical requirements for the women in the pilot will be identical to those of male tank fighters. He also said past pilots had seen injury rates that were too high, so training must reduce injuries without lowering standards.

The IDF said women will not be placed in mixed tank crews, and any future integration into armor would be in a separate framework, at least at company level. The military does not plan to place women in regular armor brigades. Today, female tank crews serve in the Border Defense array in routine security roles such as patrols, observation, stopping smuggling, and preventing infiltrations. Women from the “Prah” company of the Caracal Battalion also fought in the first modern tank battle led entirely by women on October 7, 2023, when they stopped Hamas attackers and won praise from Zamir and sector commanders. In recent weeks, dozens of hesder yeshiva heads signed a letter saying armor service is halakhically forbidden, and more than 25 yeshivot and pre-army academies joined a boycott tied to the High Court ruling and the IDF plan to begin the pilot in November 2026.