The last years have seen a race between projectiles which can defeat re-active armor..and mods to armor to defeat the new penetrators.
IDF began kibbutzing around with different turret designs on the Magach 4-7 series...the old M-60's.
Older Merkava 1-2's got pulled in..and revamped ..upgrades..new deisel engines..and modifed turrets.
The Merk 4 is the knowledge learned from past years applied...its a sure bet..the IDF fires thier best penetrators at it to determine its flexability.
Israel is said to be a world leader in hyper -velocity munitions...
Back in the 80's the IDF played with 105mm Nato munitions...ramped up its punch..said to be able to hole a T-72 from a great distance.
Now they field the 120 mm..with decades of experience.
Still..the tank is in trouble..when one see's the missiles which are available..the U.S. Javelin Anti-tnk missile which flies in a arc..then comes down on the top of the tank....IDF has their own version aswell..so it will be intersting to see what the armor on the top of the Merk 4 is able to handle...ie..did they test it against Javelin and their own anti-tank ..look down ..shot down missile?
The 2 Merks which the Palies blew up did fail..but marginally..considering the volume of TNT..some 100 lbs. compared to the U.S. Abrams tank shell which has about 40 pounds of TNT in it I beleive..[My figures could be off..the round itself weighs some 70 lbs].
One Merkava had its engine driven up thru the glacius..which hit the tank barrel..and ripped the turrets ring from the body..the turret flipped off crushing 2 crew..who actually survived the detonation..but were pinned upside down and killed.
The other detonation did blow the tank..and it burned..and the detonation did blow the turret fromn the ring.
Merkavas have extra plates for the lower hull..but IDF leaves them off due to weight /fuel considerations.
Now one wonders what changes have occured to Merkava 4 concerning the lower hull..and the turret ring
Or is 100 lbs of TNT just to much for any unit to survive .
Or is 100 pounds of TNT just to much for any unit to survive. Nope. I once saw an M48A3 that had been the victim of a Viet Cong command detonated mine made from a USAF 750-pound bomb that hadn't gone off. The fella who tripped the thing waited just a fraction of a second too long to touch it off, and it went off beneath the engine compartment rather than the turret, but still got the job done. The power pack [engine/transmission assembly] was blown out of the engine compartment and was thrown alongside the vehicles rear deck; both tracks were thrown off the drive sprocket and rear support rollers and most of the rear road wheels either seperated or had their torshion bars shattered. That could have been from the initial blast or may have resulted when the 50-ton vehicle was lifted into the air, then came crashing back down.
The turret did not seperate from the chassis, but I was told that the main gun hydraulics and accumulators used for gun tube elevation were completely wrecked from the overstress and of course the sighting optics and rangefinder were ruined, with most of their glass components shattered. Perhaps most interestingly, the ammunition carried aboard, mostly *black can* and *green can* canister, but including a few High Explosive rounds and 4 rounds of High Explosive-Anti Tank ammo just on the chance of an encounter with a NVA PT76, did not detonate.
All four members of the crew survived. The driver's jaw was broken when he was thrown forward onto the *butterfly* steering wheel of the early M48s, but all four crewmen had their CVC helmets on [not always the case in 'Nam as the things were hot, uncomfortable and had no retaining headstrap; I used a headset and *porkchop* hand microphone with tank commo gear a lot myself] and aside from bruises and hearing damage, they came through it better than the guy who had killed their vehicle [written off as a complete combat loss] who was killed as a result of the explosion he had set off himself when that 10-ton, half-Volkswagen-sized power pack blown out of the rear deck landed on him. Ooops.
Kids, don't try this at home with your own tank.
-archy-/-
