Schlesinger Critical of Israeli Tank Tactics During October War

Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger said today that “deficiencies” in Israeli tank tactics during the Yom Kippur War rather than faults in American tanks led to “substantially exaggerated” accounts of the effectiveness of anti-tank missiles used against Israel in that war. He said the same exaggeration applied to the effectiveness of anti-aircraft missiles against Israeli aircraft but did not elaborate.

Schlesinger made his statements in reply to questions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University where he spoke on the decline of American military power and the concurrent growth in Soviet strength. He said that data on those missiles in the conflict, as opposed to “the initial rumors” that came from the Middle East, made it “evident that the lethality of those weapons systems against either tanks or against aircraft was substantially exaggerated.”

The Defense Secretary said that while the anti-tank missile is an effective weapon, “the problem in the Middle East was that the Israelis did not use tactics of combined arms. They did not combine appropriate screening by infantry forces for their tank units. As a result of those deficiencies in tactics, their immediate reaction was that the value of the tank had been exaggerated,” Schlesinger said.

He agreed that “indeed, it had,” but added, “I have noticed, however, as I look at our own inventory of tanks, that there has been no decline in demand for those tanks during the course of the past year on the part of belligerents in the Middle East or on the part of others. The most effective tank killer continues to be the tank,” he said. In reply to another question, Schlesinger said “it is plain” that “a close political association” exists between the U.S. and “some of the Persian Gulf states.” He did not name them.