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The Merkava, Israel's Chieftain?


Life_In_Black

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Both the Israelis and Egyptians had a handful of vehicle mounted ATGMs in 1967.  Cobras and S11s as far as I remember for the IDF. I do not know of any actually being fired. There was neither the doctrine nor numbers for either side to employ the missiles with any effect.

 

Sagger was not a great surprise to the IDF in 1973. They had encountered it in small amounts during the War of Attrition between 1968 and the Yom Kippur war. What was a huge surprise was the numbers of ATGMs used in company with an apparently endless supply of RPGs. That and the greatly improved level of training and determination offered by the Arab forces.

 

Cheers

Marsh

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You are welcome Collimatrix . Just to expand on my answer, I forgot to mention that I have seen a number of old fashioned looking Soviet light trucks, each mounting Swatter AT-2 ATGMs, which were captured from Egypt in 1967.(One of the advantages of being an old git, is that you have lived long enough to have seen a lot. My problem nowadays, is remembering it)!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Russia has agreed to give Israel back an M48 Magach tank that was on display at Kubinka.  This vehicle was captured in Lebanon by Syrian forces in 1982 and then given to the USSR.

 

https://tankandafvnews.com/2016/05/29/russia-to-return-israeli-magach-tank-captured-in-1982/

 

2742423169.jpg?w=310&h=174

 

That seems odd, why would Israel care?

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That seems odd, why would Israel care?

It's more about the three missing tankers that went with this vehicle.  Reportedly, the tank arrived in the Soviet Union still containing human remains, personal belongings and documents belonging to the tank's crew.  Russia denies this was the case saying no human remains or crew items were in the vehicle when they received it.  I would assume that even if it were true, such objects would have been removed from the vehicle before it was put on display so I'm not really sure what the Israelis hope to gain from it.  Still, Israel has been asking for this vehicle for a long time, it makes sense for the Russians to return it as a diplomatic gesture.  

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It's more about the three missing tankers that went with this vehicle.  Reportedly, the tank arrived in the Soviet Union still containing human remains, personal belongings and documents belonging to the tank's crew.  Russia denies this was the case saying no human remains or crew items were in the vehicle when they received it.  I would assume that even if it were true, such objects would have been removed from the vehicle before it was put on display so I'm not really sure what the Israelis hope to gain from it.  Still, Israel has been asking for this vehicle for a long time, it makes sense for the Russians to return it as a diplomatic gesture.  

As Walter has said. It's more to do with the missing crewmen than the tank. It's the same MIA thing common to most Western societies. The families still think the crew may be alive and/or want some form of closure. 

 

Two Magachs were captured. Three crew members were not accounted for. There are grainy clips of film from 1982 showing one of the Magachs being driven through the streets of Damascus, with three apparently alive, but wounded, crew members being exhibited on the outside of the vehicle. The Syrian authorities since then have blankly denied any knowledge of the fate of the crew members. The Israelis want to ascertain if it was the same vehicle being driven through Damascus and if it is the vehicle belonging to the missing soldiers.

 

It won't bring the crewmen back, but might fill in some of the missing jigsaw pieces.

 

cheers

Marsh

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Yuri Pasholok take on situation:

http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/6375651.html

http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/6377455.html

 

He claims that story about human remains is complete baize, that was spread by one particular worker of museum. Second link shows that museum workers wanted to get same tank and first version of Merkava-3 for that Magach.

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My article about APS Trophy/ASPRO-A/Windbreaker etc :)

http://dziennikzbrojny.pl/artykuly/art,5,23,8216,wojska-ladowe,wyposazenie,wiatrowka-dla-merkawy-mk-4-czyli-izraelski-aktywny-system-ochrony-aspro-a-trophy

(In polish)

 

and possible to download from oficial Polish Army magazine:

https://zbrojni.blob.core.windows.net/pzdata2/TinyMceFiles/PRZEGLAD_03_2015_CC.pdf

page 90 in pdf

(more about APS but Trophy is shortly present there - in polish too. ,maybe will be usefull for sombody work/thesis, etc :) )

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So Russia and Israel just exchanged two Magach 3 tank so Israel could get that Magach 3 back for research?

As already mentioned. They do want to search for any evidence of the fate of the captured crewmen. Sadly, any new information is unlikely. I would not be surprised if the returned Magach was to become a memorial for soldiers missing in action.

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That is media noise that have nothing to do with actual situation. The vehicle serial number was known for a long time, AFAIK tank was found to be not a tank with missing crew. And Israel accepted vehicle as participant of that battle, not as evidence for investigation.

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