Amikam Norkin

Norkin was born in 1966 and grew up in Moshav Beit She’arim in the Jezreel Valley, in northern Israel.[1] His maternal grandfather was among the founders of Nahalal, while his paternal grandfather was among the early members of the Hashomer organization.[9] He was named after his father’s cousin, Amikam Shamai, who was killed on May 16, 1966, when a Syrian mine struck the jeep in which he was traveling.[9]

Following his father’s example, Norkin initially entered the Armored Corps before transferring to the Air Force.[10] He enlisted in July 1985 and completed the fighter track of the 113th flight course as an outstanding cadet in July 1987.[9] After four months of advanced training on Skyhawk aircraft, he became an operational pilot in the F-15 squadron known as the Twin-Tail Knights in 1988.[9] At the time, he was the youngest F-15 pilot in the world.[9]

In the early 1990s, Norkin served as deputy commander of the Hammers squadron, which operated Phantom aircraft from Hatzerim, and flew bombing sorties during Operation Accountability.[9] He subsequently instructed in the flight school’s advanced fighter-training track.[9] In the mid-1990s, he became deputy commander of the Golden Eagle F-16 squadron and participated in Operation Grapes of Wrath.[9]

After an assignment in the Air Force Operations Department, Norkin commanded the Twin-Tail Knights F-15 squadron from 1999 to 2002.[6] In 2002, he led the Air Force’s first deployment of aircraft to the United States for a joint exercise with the American military.[6] Recalling that deployment, he said, “For the first time, we crossed the ocean, for an exercise.”[6] He later commanded the Negev squadron and led the introduction of the F-16I, known in Israel as the Sufa.[6]

In 2003, Norkin was selected to lead the team bringing the first F-16I aircraft into Israeli service. He subsequently commanded the Negev squadron and oversaw the aircraft’s absorption.[6][11] In 2005, after three years of squadron command and work on the Sufa’s introduction, he was promoted to colonel and appointed head of the Air Force Operations Department.[11]

During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Norkin headed that department and managed preparations for Operation Specific Weight on the war’s second day.[10][6] In a 34-minute operation, the Air Force destroyed a large part of Hezbollah’s long-range Fajr rocket arsenal.[6] He was expected to leave his operations post in 2007 but was asked to remain.[6]

Promoted to brigadier general in 2009, Norkin took command of Tel Nof Airbase, which he led until 2012.[11][10] His subsequent senior assignments included heading the Air Force’s Training and Doctrine Division and serving as chief of Air Staff.[10] In November 2012, while head of the Air Group, he managed the operation in which Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari was killed at the opening of Operation Pillar of Defense.[11]

In July 2015, Norkin became head of the IDF Planning Directorate and was promoted to major general.[6] The directorate’s responsibilities included strategic planning, military force buildup, and organization.[10] He helped shape and implement the Gideon multi-year plan after a period in which the military had operated without a five-year plan.[6]

As Planning Directorate head, Norkin participated in negotiations for the 2016 United States–Israel defense-aid memorandum of understanding alongside Budget Division head Sasson Hadad.[12] The resulting agreement provided $38 billion for the period from 2019 through 2028.[12] Negotiations included compromises over ending the conversion of American aid dollars into shekels, with the change scheduled to take full effect in 2028 rather than at the agreement’s outset.[12]

Norkin was appointed Air Force commander on August 10, 2017, succeeding Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel.[1] At the formal Tel Nof handover ceremony on August 14, he identified himself as the service’s eighteenth commander and outlined priorities that included absorbing new capabilities, increasing cooperation with other military branches, and responding to changes in the Middle East and on the battlefield.[13] He also emphasized that the force’s people, rather than its platforms and weapons alone, were its real source of strength.[10] He pledged attention to personnel, their sense of belonging, and their ability to make a difference.[10]

An early operational challenge came in February 2018, when a Syrian anti-aircraft missile brought down an Israeli F-16.[14] Norkin visited the injured pilot at Rambam Medical Center and told him that abandoning the damaged aircraft had been the right decision, saving both the pilot and navigator.[14] The subsequent military investigation identified a “professional error” by the crew in failing to respond properly to the missile threat.[14] Norkin characterized the investigation as an opportunity for the Air Force to learn and improve.[14] Following the aircraft’s loss, the Air Force carried out another round of attacks against Syrian air defenses.[15]

At a May 2018 conference attended by more than twenty foreign air force commanders, Norkin announced that Israeli F-35 aircraft had carried out operational strikes twice in the Middle East, making Israel the first country to use the aircraft in combat.[4] He also displayed a photograph of an F-35 flying over Beirut and discussed Israeli strikes on Iranian positions in Syria.[4]

At the same conference, Norkin said Iran had launched 32 rockets toward Israel, revising an earlier figure of roughly twenty.[4] He said four rockets had been intercepted and the remainder had fallen outside Israel.[4] Describing the Israeli response, he said the Air Force had attacked more than twenty Iranian targets in Syria.[4] Syrian air defenses, he added, had fired more than one hundred missiles at Israeli aircraft, after which Israel destroyed Syrian air-defense batteries.[4] He also reviewed the 2007 strike on a Syrian reactor and presented video documenting the attack.[4]

On September 20, 2018, Norkin traveled to Moscow after a strike in Syria, accompanied by liaison officers, planners, and intelligence personnel.[16] The delegation met Russian counterparts, presented a forty-page report about the strike, and suggested improvements to the mechanism intended to prevent clashes between the two countries’ forces.[16] The mission presented the IDF investigation into the downing of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft during Israeli operations in Syria.[17]

The Jewish Virtual Library describes Norkin as an architect of Israel’s “war between the wars,” a campaign intended to deter Iran and limit its ability to attack Israel in a future open conflict.[5] The IDF conducted more than four hundred airstrikes in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East from 2017 as part of that campaign.[5] Norkin argued that without these operations, the situation might have been “much more negative.”[5]

In December 2020, less than a day after airstrikes in Syria, Norkin reiterated Israel’s determination to act against Iranian activity there and against transfers of precision missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.[18] He stated: “The Middle East is very explosive. We will not accept Iranian capabilities on the [Israel-Syria] border, and we will not accept precision missiles in Lebanon.”[18]

Preparation for a possible northern war and a potential strike on Iran remained priorities alongside ongoing operations between wars.[19] Norkin expressed concern about Iranian-made air-defense systems entering Syria, including systems reportedly transported in pieces among containers at Latakia port.[19] Attacking the relevant containers required precise intelligence and carefully targeted strikes.[19] He warned against becoming attached to a single operational method and emphasized the need to consider whether a strike could trigger a wider war.[19]

Near the end of his command, Norkin publicly acknowledged limits on Israeli freedom of action over Lebanon.[7] In an April 2022 interview, he said Hezbollah had nearly shot down an Israeli drone in 2021 and described a resulting reduction in intelligence-collection overflights.[7] He concluded that Israel no longer had full freedom of action over Lebanon.[7]

Norkin also said that alternative methods had improved other elements of Israeli activity, describing those adjustments as part of the 2022 work plan.[20] He emphasized that political leaders needed accurate assessments of the Air Force’s capabilities and limitations before deciding on military action.[21] “I only give accurate, reliable answers about what we can do,” he said.[21] Asked about readiness to attack Iran, he said Tehran had returned to the top of the military agenda following the United States’ withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in 2018.[21]

Changes in force structure accompanied these operational demands.[19] A Jerusalem Post commentary credited Norkin’s command with reorganizing Hatzor Base around unmanned aerial vehicles and air defense, moving its F-16s north, and planning a missile-defense command center integrating oversight of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow.[22] The same commentary described the consolidation of Shaldag, the 669 search-and-rescue unit, and a unit supporting Hercules transport operations on makeshift runways into a single Air Force special-operations wing.[22]

By the end of Norkin’s command, unmanned aircraft constituted approximately 30 percent of the Air Force’s aircraft.[19] A project called “Storm Clouds” envisaged a large unmanned-aircraft array for intelligence gathering and close support to ground forces.[19] The planned system involved hundreds of aircraft intended to support round-the-clock operations while reducing risks to aircrews, alongside a central command system for defending Israeli airspace.[19]

Cooperation with ground forces also expanded, including a reported 300 percent increase in joint training in the year covered by a 2022 profile.[19] Air Force officers were placed in divisions and regional commands.[19] Despite the availability of weapons capable of engaging enemy aircraft at distances greater than one hundred kilometers, dogfighting still accounted for 60 percent of pilots’ training.[19] Norkin defended that emphasis, describing dogfighting skill as a strategic asset that maintained pilots’ abilities and prepared them for varied missions.[19]

Women received several unprecedented leadership appointments during Norkin’s tenure.[10] These included the first woman to command an operational transport-aircraft squadron, as well as women appointed to oversee ground-based Air Force operations, lead the operational command-and-control unit, and serve as deputy commander of an F-15 combat squadron.[10] The first female squadron commander, identified as Lt. Col. G., had joined the IDF in 2003, specialized in transport aircraft, and served as deputy commander of the Nachshon surveillance-aircraft squadron before her promotion.[3] At her appointment, Norkin said: “Well done, our first operational squadron commander in the air force. We have been waiting for this for 71 years.”[3]

International exercises became another prominent feature of his command.[19] The Jerusalem Post commentary presented such partnerships as a means of developing pilots’ skills and strengthening Israel’s strategic depth, noting that Israeli and Italian F-35s participated in Blue Flag for the first time in October 2019.[22] It reported that the 2021 exercise brought more than 1,500 participants and aircraft from India, the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Greece, and France.[22] That exercise included the first deployment of a British fighter squadron to Israel and the first Indian deployment of a Mirage fighter squadron there.[22]

On August 17, 2020, Israeli fighter jets landed in Germany for the first time, seventy-five years after the Holocaust.[23] The Israeli contingent included six F-16s, two Gulfstream G-55 command aircraft, and two Boeing 707 tankers.[23] Joint exercises near Germany’s border with Denmark included midair refueling and mock air battles.[23] The visit also incorporated remembrance: Israelis and Germans laid a wreath at Dachau, and aircraft flew over Fürstenfeldbruck in memory of the eleven Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics.[23]

Norkin led a commemorative flyover above Dachau and the outskirts of Munich, flying in the lead Israeli Gulfstream with German Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz.[24] Addressing the historical significance of training in Germany, he said: “Many IAF fighters are grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and in the ’60s and ’70s of the last century, half of the IAF’s pilots were Holocaust survivors themselves — and yet we believe this is the right thing to do.”[23] In October 2021, Norkin and Gerhartz led a joint flyover over Jerusalem during Blue Flag.[24]

Norkin’s command ended on April 4, 2022, when Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar formally succeeded him at Tel Nof.[25] Regional counterparts attended the ceremony, which included Hebrew, English, and Arabic.[26] His departure marked the completion of 37 years of IDF service.[27] Before leaving office, he planned to make his final flight as commander in an F-15 at Tel Nof, returning to the aircraft type and squadron in which his fighter career had begun 34 years earlier.[19]

In his farewell address, Norkin described the period since summer 2017 as unexpectedly turbulent, marked by change, extensive operational activity, and the global pandemic.[25] He said the pandemic had imposed an unfamiliar routine and that the Air Force had operated across all sectors in offensive and defensive roles.[25][27] He also described partnerships with foreign air forces, especially the United States, as an asset and a bridge to regional stability.[25]

Norkin received Germany’s Order of Merit from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for his contribution to deepening and widening relations between Israel and Germany.[24] The honor accompanied a period of bilateral military cooperation that included the first Israeli fighter deployment to German soil and joint commemorative flights over sites associated with the Holocaust and the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich.[23][24]

His command also encompassed operational and personnel milestones, including Israel’s first reported combat use of the F-35 and the appointment of the first woman to command an Israeli Air Force squadron.[4][3] In explaining his approach to leadership at the beginning of his tenure, he emphasized the importance of personnel and their sense of belonging over reliance on aircraft and weapons alone.[10] His public farewell returned to the service’s operational responsibilities and the value of international partnerships.[25]

After leaving command, Norkin continued to contribute to discussion of aerial warfare.[8] He co-authored an analysis published on February 26, 2023, examining lessons for Israel from the war in Ukraine and the changing aerial threat.[8] The analysis argued that extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles, including Iranian-produced systems, highlighted challenges in detection, interception, defense, and home-front preparedness.[8]

The September 2018 downing of the Russian Il-20 generated a significant dispute surrounding the Israeli operations that Norkin’s delegation subsequently discussed in Moscow.[16] Russia accused Israel of using the reconnaissance aircraft as cover and providing inadequate warning. Israel denied using the Il-20 as cover, said its notification followed established deconfliction practice, and maintained that its aircraft had returned to Israeli airspace before the Russian plane was hit.[16][17]

Several public accounts of operations during Norkin’s command rested on his own disclosures, including the number of F-35 combat missions, Iranian rocket launches, and Syrian air-defense missiles fired in the May 2018 exchanges.[4] His assessment that the campaign between wars prevented a substantially worse security situation was likewise his evaluation of the campaign’s impact, rather than an independently established outcome.[5]