The Israel army is planning no cut in personnel, a military spokesman declared here today in denial of reports that in view of the economic burdens of the Sinai campaign the army would reduce its manpower but increase their training programs. The situation is not one which encourages a reduction in the size of Israel’s armed forces, he said.
The spokesman noted that in view of new developments in warfare the army was putting emphasis on the technical training of officers and noncoms and that Premier and Defense Minister David Ben Gurion had repeatedly stressed in speeches to officer cadets and students the country’s need for more scientists and technicians.
The chief of the army’s ordnance section recently declared that Israel had the know how to produce virtually every standard weapon in use in the armed forces. One demonstration of this technical skill was the recent conversion by the ordnance corps of old-fashioned American-made Sherman tanks by speeding them up and increasing the size of the artillery pieces they mounted.
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