Israel Defense Minister Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon. Photo: Reuven Kapuscinski.

In the face of budget cuts across Israel’s Armed Forces, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said investments in technology are what will allow Israel to maintain a technological advantage over its enemies, according to Israel’s Ma’ariv daily.

Across land, sea and air, the Israeli Army will lay off about 5,000 people to meet demands of the 2013-2014 budget. The defense minister said: “These measures are a responsible and considerate response, and include investment in weapons and arrays to help the IDF to continue to keep the dramatic technological gap with countries and organizations around us.”

He added that the future battlefield will be resolved precisely through technological superiority: “We will continue to invest in precision munitions, intelligence, communications, active defense and cyber, understanding the battlefield current and future completely different from anything we’ve seen before. The foreseeable future may lead us to conflicts that will be resolved through the technological superiority of the IDF, the air, sea and land, with less tools.”

“These changes will help the fighters operate more efficiently, utilizing human and technological advantages that will give them many options to make sure the battle is swift and decisive. So we’ll be sure not to damage buildup and we will invest in it, since it is this which will maintain a qualitative edge of the state of Israel,” Yaalon concluded.