The Merkava MK-4
The Merkava MK-4
The Merkava is a huge source of National Pride for the Israeli's. They probably will end up buying future tanks from western powers. The only tank I think that is better is the Abrams. They may not need to keep producing individual units because they will have plenty for years to come, in order to do this they would have to keep some of the factories open to make parts and upgrades.
Bad move. What if the West refuses to manufacture Tanks for Israel?
Merkava has important specific features for war as fought
by the IDF, including extra water storage and a access door for ground troops/egress. Possibly they could do an
offshore build or modify an existing Western tank.
UK Chieftain would be the closest equivalent. Israel
can't afford the turbine's fuel consumption.
This article starts off as "The IDF has decided", but that really means "The politically appointed cronies of Kadima appointed to senior IDF posts were commanded to decide that the merkava tank production line will be shut down within four years."
If this decision was made before the Lebanon affiar, it means the Kadima partners were demanding the Merkava appropriations for domestic social spending, and Olmert and Kadima were more than willing to gut the increasingly religious military of funding to secure the Knesset votes of the minor coalition parties.
Olmert has the highest unfavorable ratings of any politician in Israel's history, including Arab MKs. He still hasn't resigned, he plans to take down Israel if that's what necessary to cling onto his personal power. Gutting th emilitary for bread and circuses didn't give him a moment of pause.
Its a badass because it can act as a troop carrier and a traditional tank.
Unfortunately, Hezbollah/Syria is being sold highly effective anti-tank missiles by the Russians and its only a matter of time before Iran gets a truck load smuggled into the gaza strip.
Israel should still keep some of these around well maintained if they ever need them, but until there is an effective way to stop the weapons sold to terrorist regimes by the russians, these tanks are sitting ducks out in the battle field.
>>>not impervious to the rockets. 500 rockets were fired at Israeli tanks, 47 Merkava tanks were hit
Somewhat misleading as this story implies a massacre of Israeli armor. I read a prior story a month or so giving a breakdown on the figures.
By memory, it said of the tanks hit, about 20 had their armor pierced. Only 5 were write offs. For the number of tracks engaged, this is a lesser % of of tanks lost or knocked out when hit as compared to previous Israeli-Lebanon combat.
Did anybody ever suggest the Merkeva WAS "impervious" ?
"Several defense establishment figures believe that the tank is no longer appropriate for the modern battlefield."
This idea seems to pop up every generation or so. I remember similar criticisms during the development of the M1 Abrams back in the 1980s - no tank could survive on a modern battlefield, etc.