Volume 74, Number 2 (2021) Spring 2021

The cover reproduces an oil-on-canvas painting by “Andy,” ca. 1970. In early October 1973, the U.S. Sixth Fleet, with USS Little Rock (CG 4) as flagship, mobilized in the eastern Mediterranean during that year’s Arab-Israeli war, also known as the Yom Kippur War. A Soviet fleet in the same area created a potential for the localized war to escalate, so Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., USN, ordered the American ships to move westward to reduce the potential for provocation. In “The Transformation of the Israel Defense Forces,” Avi Jager traces the challenges and fortunes of the Israel Defense Forces following the 1973 conflict, especially with regard to low-intensity conflict with nonstate actors, and discusses the changes made to its various branches, units, and armaments to operate better in the modern environment.