[tomahawk]

Great post!

[SamAdams76]

Nice tank. Now let's put it into use promptly.

[Asclepius]

... The Brigadier added, "a large number of the workmen actually molded the cast for the tank's metal sheets with their bare hands" ...

Who else in the world would field a hand-made tank?

[cmsgop]

Great Looking Piece of Meat! It Looks Hungry......

[Rodney King]

The gap betwwen the turret and the chasis is a major shell trap. Check out the Abrams, Challenger, and the Leopard II. They don't have such traps. I have know idea why the IDF designed the turret that way. I guess they are not planning on using it in a MBT roll.

[RetiredArmy]

Back during the 67 and 73 mideast wars, damaged tanks from the war came back to Alabama to the Anniston Army Depot to the Army Tank Rebuild Center. My dad was a lead welder there and worked 18-20 hour days repairing their battle damaged equipment and it was rush-shipped back. As far as I know, AAD is still the only place we do this type of work on tanks.

[SwinneySwitch]

Neat, custom tanks!

[rockfish59]

Bring it on!

[Dog Gone]

According to this new method, testing of the tank is concurrent with the production of the tank. This way, due to the changes happening all the way through the production, the first tank off the production lines will be different than the 20th tank off the production line.

How would you like to be assigned to take tank #1 into battle?

[sheik yerbouty]

Yasher koach!

[Consort]

Minister of Defence

[cavtrooper21]

Can we get some of these for the WVDF?

[CapandBall]

tank bump

[thatdewd]

The arabs think this design was made specifically for full scale war with the syrians. There's a review of it on www.albawaba.com. Here's some quotes from the article:

"The design features that were reveled show that the Merkava Mk. 4 is specifically intended for full-scale conflict with Syria, and will significantly alter the military balance between Israel and Syria."

"The Israeli media stressed after the unveiling ceremony that the Merkava Mk. 4 was specifically designed for improved performance on the difficult terrain of the Golan Heights...Israel's military planners clearly allotted high importance to possessing a tank capable of traversing the difficult terrain on the road to Damascus."

"The ability of the new Merkava MBT to defend itself against helicopters represents a major shift in the power balance between Israel and Syria."

"The new tank is a clear indication that the Israeli leadership regards war with Syria as a more than likely possibility."

Nice War-Wagon. They only get better and better. That turret gap isn't as big a vulnerability as it may appear. Any ordinance of size would be striking from above or at an angle, and any smaller ordinance fired from close-up wouldn't have enough force to overcome the kewl armor it has. This is definitely a full-scale battle tank with it's armor system and tank-killer cannon, and the mortar system gives it impressive infantry support capabilities. kewl deal.

[MonroeDNA]

Outstanding!

Isreal needs independance from fickle countries who have advanced arms.

Under the 'toon administration, this would have been bad (for the toon administration).

[Tijeras_Slim]

The price of the Mark 4 Merkava tank is 30%-50% cheaper than any other tank worldwide.

My first boss was Jewish, he always told me "Never pay retail!"

Thanks for this post.

[InvisibleChurch]

US tank under XXXlinton/Daschle Administration.

[tictoc]

Bump for great thread

[crystalk]

As we were just saying on another thread, the Merkava is the vehicle of God, or of the Celestials, in the Bible.

"The Merkavot of the Celestials number 20,000, and the Lord [YHWH] is in one of them." it says in the Bible.

As we were saying also, "Ma'aseh Merkava" means either "the mechanical workings of the vehicle, ie what makes it go..."-- or "anything awesomely complex and incomprehensible."

Either way, congrats to Israel and the IDF. May the Tank be a comfort to many persecuted Jews and Christians everywhere, and a terror to Islam.