IDF Caterpillar D9

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An Israeli armored Caterpillar D9R bulldozer. Its armor allows it to work under heavy fire.

The IDF Caterpillar D9 — nicknamed Doobi (

Israeli Military Industries and Israel Aerospace Industries
to increase the survivability of the bulldozer in hostile environments and enable it to withstand attack.

In the 1980s the IDF began modifying D9 bulldozers to incorporate armour. There are various models, including a remote controlled version. The IDF Caterpillar D9 is operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

counter-terrorism
operations.

Characteristics

Three IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers with slat armor parked near an IDF outpost.

The D9R, the latest generation of

Combat Engineering Corps.[citation needed
]

The main IDF modification is the installation of an Israeli-made

landmines, IED and large belly charges.[1][2][dubious – discuss
]

The IDF uses the D9 for a wide variety of

armored fighting vehicles and infantry, as well as structures demolition
, including under fire.

History

Second Lebanon War
FN Mag
machinegun and slat armor during IDF training

civilian engineering in Israel and from there it was recruited to military service by the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF).

Earlier use

Unarmored D9 bulldozers were used in the Sinai War (1956), Six-Day War (1967), Yom Kippur War (1973) and the 1982 Lebanon War (1982).[3]

During

Paratroopers Brigade to claim the summit and prevent it from falling into the hands of Syria.[citation needed
]

During the 1982 Lebanon War D9s were employed in breaching and paving ways through mountains and fields in the mountain landscape of southern Lebanon. The D9s also cleared minefields and explosive belly charges set on the main routes by Syrian army and Palestinian insurgents. Because the D9 served as front-line tools, the IDF developed armor kits to protect the lives of the soldiers operating them.[4]

Between the wars, D9 bulldozers were employed in earthworks, building fortifications, opening routes and clearing explosive charges. During the late 1980s Israeli-made armor was installed on the D9L bulldozers that were in IDF service. Improved armor kits were designed and installed on the D9N bulldozers during the 1990s.[citation needed]

The Second Intifada

An IDF D9N (2nd generation armor) razing a house during the Second Intifada

Armored D9 bulldozers were used during the

suicide bombers.[citation needed
]

Over 3,000 homes in Palestine were demolished by Israel during the conflict, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.[5] The destruction of Palestinian homes promoted protests. In one such protest in Rafah in 2003 a group of eight people tried to stop a D9 bulldozer from demolishing a family home. The operator of the bulldozer drove over one of the protesters, Rachel Corrie. She died as a result of her injuries.[6]

Following several incidents where armed Palestinians barricaded themselves inside houses and killed soldiers attempting to breach the entries, the IDF developed "Nohal Sir Lachatz" (

engineering vehicles
were used to bring them out by razing the houses; most of them surrendered because of fear of being buried alive.

During the

Battle of Jenin 2002 armored D9 bulldozers cleared booby traps and improvised explosive devices, and eventually razed houses from which militants fired upon Israeli soldiers or contained possible IEDs and booby traps. A translated interview with one of the drivers was published by Gush Shalom.[7] After the deadly ambush in which 13 soldiers were killed, D9 bulldozers razed the center of the Jenin refugee camp and forced the remaining Palestinian fighters to surrender, thus finishing the battle with an Israeli victory.[8]

D9R and early 21st century

anti-tank missile, the IDF introduced in 2005 a slat armor
, installed in large numbers on the IDF D9R dozers in 2006. The slat armor proved to be effective and life-saving; its developers and installers won the IDF's Ground Command award.

The IDF also operates armored remote-controlled D9N bulldozers, called "Raam HaShachar" (

Second Lebanon War in 2006 and the Gaza War (2008–2009).[9] In total, 100 D9s were deployed during the Gaza War (2008–2009).[10] In March 2009 The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF intended to increase its use of unmanned D9 bulldozers, doubling the number it had.[9] The following year Israel's Channel 2 reported that Caterpillar would delay the delivery of D9 bulldozers to the IDF while am investigation into the killing of Rachel Corrie took place [11]

Armored D9R bulldozers took part in the effort to extinguish 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire. The armored bulldozers opened routes to fire trucks and fire fighters into the heart of the fire. They also created fire breaks by clearing shrubbery and pushing up soil barriers in order to prevent the fire from spreading. They also helped extinguish fires by burying them in dirt and soil.[12]

2014 Gaza War

IDF D9 armored bulldozers took major role in the

Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces
.

In the first day of the operation, an IDF D9 bulldozer foiled a penetration terror attack in the beach of Zikim, killing two terrorists. Two others were killed by IDF patrol boat.

The D9s also participated in the ground offensive, opening routes to

anti-tank missile, killing its operator and wounding its commander. Another D9 demolished the building from which the missile was launched, killing 8 militants and capturing two more. The crew received a citation of recommendation (צל"ש, tzalash
) for their action.

D9T Panda

IDF D9 Panda

In 2018 the Israel Defense Forces Combat Engineering Corps started to deploy and operate the "Panda" – a remote-controlled version of an armored

anti-tank missiles.[14] In 2022-2023 the Panda entered regular service with the IDF.[15]

2023 Israel–Hamas war

During the

2023 Israel–Hamas war D9 Bulldozers were deployed on the ground offensive into Gaza where it was used to clear routes for ground forces to manoeuvre[16] and expose shafts of Hamas combat tunnels.[17] According to The Independent around 100 D9 bulldozers were expected to be used in the opening stage of the war.[18] On 16 December the IDF captured the Kamal Adwan Hospital; in doing so IDF bulldozers crushed people who had been sheltering outside the hospital.[19] An investigation by CNN using satellite imagery identified sixteen burial grounds in Gaza that had been desecrated by the IDF using bulldozers to level cemeteries and dig up bodies.[20] Bulldozers were also used in the deliberate destruction of Gaza's environment, with an estimated 38–48% of Gaza's farmland and tree cover destroyed by Israel's military.[21]

Models in IDF service

Different armored Caterpillar D9 generations in IDF service.
From left to right:
D9L: First generation armor, 460 hp (340 kW), drawbar pull 75 tonnes (74 long tons; 83 short tons).
D9N: Second generation armor, 375–401 hp (280–299 kW).
D9R: Third and 3.5 generation armor, 405 hp (302 kW), drawbar pull 71.6 tonnes (70.5 long tons; 78.9 short tons).
D9T: Fourth generation armor, 410–436 hp (306–325 kW), drawbar pull 71.6 tonnes (70.5 long tons; 78.9 short tons).

Criticism

Main article: Caterpillar Inc. § Israel Defense Forces sales

Caterpillar's sales of D9 bulldozers to the Israeli military for use in the

occupied Palestinian territories has long drawn criticism from human rights groups, society groups and responsible investment monitors.[22][23]

UN High Commissioner on Human Rights sent a letter to the company the next month warning that by selling bulldozers to the IDF Caterpillar may be complicit in human rights violations, specifically the right to food as the bulldozers were used to destroy Palestinian farms.[22][25] Human Rights Watch reported the same year on the systematic use of D9 bulldozers in illegal demolitions throughout the occupied territories and called on Caterpillar to suspend its sales to Israel, citing the company's own code of conduct.[26]

The punitive destruction of Palestinian homes has been described as a form of collective punishment,[27] and in the view of Human Rights Watch may be considered a war crime.[28]

The pro-Palestinian group

destroy Palestinian homes conformed with the company's code of business conduct. In response, the pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs urged its members to buy Caterpillar stock and to write letters of support to the company.[29]

The US investment indexer

Volvo Group, complicit in what they referred to as Israel's ethnic cleansing of the occupied Palestinian territories through the use of its equipment in the demolition of eight Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank.[32]

See also

References

  • Mass, Michael; Adam O'Brien. Doobi – D9 Variants. IDF Armor Series. Desert Eagle Publishing.
    ISBN 978-965-91635-3-3
    .

Citations

  1. ^ Belly charge is a large improvised explosive device planted under the ground, intended to explode under the hull of a tank and destroy it. Large belly charges contain more than 100 kilograms (220 lb) of explosive. The IDF D9 withstood even huge belly charges of about 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of explosive.
  2. ^ Finkler, Kobi (8 April 2016). "Miracle on the Gaza border". Arutz Sheva (Israel National News). Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  3. ^ Tegler, Eric (24 October 2023). "Israel's Armored Caterpillar Bulldozers Will Be Active in Gaza". Forbes. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  4. nrg Maariv
    . Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  5. ^ Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property (PDF) (Report). Amnesty International. 2004. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 January 2015.
  6. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  7. ^ "I made them a stadium in the middle of the camp" Archived 12 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine Gush Shalom, English translation of Hebrew interview in Yediot Aharonot, 31 May 2002.
  8. ^ Rees, Matt (13 May 2002). "Inside the Battle of Jenin : Untangling Jenin's Tale". Time. Archived from the original on 6 April 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  9. ^ a b Yaakov, Katz (30 March 2009). "'Black Thunder' unmanned dozers to play greater role in IDF". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  10. JSTOR 10.1525/jps.2009.XXXVIII.3.175
    .
  11. ^ "Report: Caterpillar to delay supply of D9 bulldozers to IDF". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  12. BaMachane
    (IDF Magazine), 9 December 2010
  13. ^ IAI: English ,Hebrew, 2019
  14. ^ "Israeli Ministry of Defense Selects Elbit Systems' Iron Fist Light Decoupled Active Protection System for the Eitan AFV". elbitsystems.com. 20 August 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  15. ^ https://www.idf.il/en/articles/2023/innovation-on-the-modern-battlefield-meet-the-idf-s-new-panda-bulldozer/ [bare URL]
  16. ^ Fabian, Emanuel (10 November 2023). "Inside a Gaza bedroom, soldiers searching for tunnels find how low Hamas can go". Times of Israel. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  17. ^ Yishai, Ron Ben (5 November 2023). "Between machine guns and rocket launchers, IDF soldiers operate in captured Hamas strongholds in Gaza". Ynetnews. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  18. ^ Watling, Tom (26 October 2023). "What are Israel's 'Teddy Bear' armoured D9 bulldozers?". The Independent. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  19. ^ "Gaza hospital destroyed, WHO chief reiterates ceasefire call | UN News". news.un.org. 18 December 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  20. ^ Diamond, Jeremy; Darwish, Muhammad; Salman, Abeer; Brown, Benjamin; Mezzofiore, Gianluca (20 January 2024). "At least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by Israeli forces, satellite imagery and videos reveal". CNN. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  21. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  22. ^ a b "The UN vs. Caterpillar". Haaretz. 16 June 2004.
  23. ^ a b "Caterpillar bulldozed off investment list because of sales to Israeli army". The Times of Israel.
  24. ^ "Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the rubble: House demolition and destruction of land and property" (PDF). Amnesty International.
  25. ^ "US bulldozer firm in Mid-East row". BBC. 15 June 2004.
  26. ^ "Israel: Caterpillar Should Suspend Bulldozer Sales". Human Rights Watch. 21 November 2004.
  27. ^ Darcy, Shane (2003). Israel's Punitive House Demolition Policy: Collective Punishment in Violation of International Law (PDF) (Report). Al-Haq. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2021.
  28. ^ Maram, Humaid; Nofal, Aziza. "'Collective punishment': Israel demolishes Palestinian homes". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  29. ^ Watanabe, Teresa (13 April 2005). "Jews Target Caterpillar Shareholder Effort". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  30. ^ "Caterpillar cut from social index over Israel". Al Jazeera.
  31. ^ "Report: Caterpillar Hired Intelligence Firm to Spy on Rachel Corrie's Family, Leaked Documents Reveal". Haaretz.
  32. ^ "NGO says Volvo Group, JCB Machinery, Caterpillar, and Hyundai Heavy Industries are complicit in apartheid Israel". Wafa.

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