Talpiot- the most elite unit of Israeli Defense Forces

Israel established a research institute called ‘Talpiot’ for it's soldiers after the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which the Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise attack. More than 2,000 Israeli soldiers were killed.

 

Talpiot is a program strictly for Israel's geniuses. It was proposed by a physicist, Felix Dothan, from the Hebrew University in a letter he gave to Colonel Aharon Beth-Halachmi who was head of the air force’s Technology Department at the time of Yom Kippur War. As per the proposal, the soldiers inducted for Talpiot program would go through a 40-month training program— the longest in the Israeli Defense Forces —and each would receive a degree in physics, mathematics or computer science while completing combat training. with the elite paratroopers. 

The graduates would then spend time in each of the military’s different branches. At the end of the 40 months, they would be posted to a single unit, with an emphasis on the air force or the Intelligence Corps. But senior Officers in the military opposed the program. Officers in the air force or the Intelligence Corps wanted the best recruits to serve as pilots and field commanders. “It would be a waste to send them somewhere else,” was the typical reaction Beth-Halachmi heard throughout the General Staff. But a couple of years later Beth-Halachmi was promoted head of the IDF’s Research and Development Authority. He got open access to Chief of Staff Raful Eitan. At one of their weekly meetings, Beth-Halachmi presented the Talpiot idea, and Raful was sold. Within three months, a pilot phase was launched.

The program was a success from the beginning.The stories are innumerable and, for the most part, remain classified. One Talpion invented a way for projectiles to travel 10 times their regular speed, by propelling them with electric and not chemical energy. Another Talpion played a key role in developing a system to detect cross-border tunnels being dug into Israel along its border with the Gaza Strip. 

Another Talpion, who turned down medical school to enlist in the unit, invented a new seat for helicopter pilots. A few years after its establishment, the prime minister convened a special meeting of the Israeli Security Cabinet to discuss the program. A few generals were now complaining that the graduates were not being distributed fairly throughout the military’s different branches.
Everyone, including Israel’s spy agencies, wanted a “Talpion”. The PM ruled that Talpions needed to be assigned to all of the country’s different security agencies, including the police. Nowadays, there is an average of five units competing for a single Talpion. While Talpiot may be a small unit—it has produced only about 1,000 graduates in some four decades—its impact is felt throughout the entire IDF and beyond. Graduates have found their way into the upper echelons of Israeli academia and the country’s high-tech industry
“There is no other program like this in the world,” said Evyatar Matanya, a former Talpion who later became head of Israel’s National Cyber Bureau. “A Talpion often revolutionizes a unit singlehandedly. Two or three in one unit is already a different world”.

Reference: 

“The Weapon Wizards: How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” by Amir Bohbot and Yaakov Katz