A group of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers specializing in non-conventional warfare recently completed a first-of-its-kind training course at a U.S. facility, local daily Yedioth Aharonoth reported Wednesday.

The officers, members of the IDF’s Home Front Command, were exposed to a chemical agent in one of the drills. Donning protective gear, they entered a room which filled with deadly nerve gas – and emerged from it unscathed a short time later.

The IDF has sent several groups of officers to undergo similar training at the facility over the past two years. It offers simulations of attacks by missiles armed with chemical warheads; officials said the training is held according to stringent safety measures, the report said.

The Israeli army regularly wargames scenarios in which missiles with warheads filled with chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents rain down on Israel. But it lacks facilities enabling training with genuine toxic agents, as well as practical experience in handling real emergencies in the wake of a CBW attack.

Military officials said the U.S. training is “worth every dollar spent.”

The last group of officers that went through the training regimen came back “changed individuals, with a heightened sense of self-confidence,” Home Front sources said.

“They better understand the nature of the threat, how to deal with it, and saw that the equipment they’re issued with really does protect them,” according to the report.

The Home Front Command said the year of 2011 will see strong preparation to deal with a non-conventional attack. In 2010, the army fitted out some 20 percent of Israel’s citizens with personal protective kits, including gas masks and atropine auto-injectors against nerve agents.

In addition, the command is about to complete the development of a system capable of giving the public an early warning of an imminent missile attack, local media reported Monday.

The Deer Horn system was jointly developed with the country’s leading cellular telcos. Army officials said it would become operational by the end of year, and exploits the fact that Israel is one of the world’s biggest users of mobile phones.

Senior officers with the C4I Communications Directorate recently displayed Deer Horn’s abilities.

Standing in a tent with several plasma screens displaying overlay maps and databases, an ops officer explained that Deer Horn was capable of accurately figuring out where a rocket fired at Israel would land, would automatically alert the population sitting in the bullseye via map-referenced cellphone numbers, and send out an SMS message alert – all while the missile was still in flight.

The system also overrides television and radio broadcasts to warn the public at large before the rocket hits.

The official said Deer Horn is also able to plot out mass- evacuation routes, and incorporates meteorological data to determine wind and other weather conditions affecting the spread of biological and chemical weapons.