The Merkava, Israel's Chieftain?

[Life_In_Black]

Hi,

 

A diesel fuel cell 7cm thick, will offer roughly 1cm protection equivalent of RHA against HEAT and slightly less against KE penetrators.

 

i have visited the production line for Merkava III when it was active, Merkava !V and the Namer. You are somewhat underestimating the protection of the tanks and are missing something. For obvious reasons I am not prepared to discuss this factor any further. 

 

Cheers

Marsh

 

I'm not so sure I believe that there's some top secret component that can't be shared, as such a secret wouldn't be shared with someone who's only visiting the plant, and if it really was shared with a visitor like that, that visitor would have been trusted enough to not use said information online to try proving someone wrong.

 

Last I'd read, raw diesel fuel is a little less effective than steel vs. shaped charges on a mass basis.  However, there are supposed to be some sort of integrated spaced armor/fuel tank designs that can raise this figure dramatically, at least against HEAT threats.

 

The pictures of the Namer didn't appear to show anything special, and while it theoretically is possible there's more to it, I get the distinct impression the entire Merkava line of vehicles have always used either the same or similar configuration as that frontal shape hasn't changed at all.

[LoooSeR]

 

 

[LoooSeR]

Small episode from Second Lebanon war (2006 "Missiles war").

 

"In Elyashiv Shimshi's book "Another such victory.." about Second Lebanon war in 2006, chapter 10 is dedicated to the offensive of the 9th Battalion of the 401st Brigade through Nahal Saluki.

 

      The battalion at that time had only 19 tanks, battalion was moving forward with tanks only, all other equipment was left in the rear. Some tanks took 4 infantry soldiers each from Hermesh company, one tank took battalion doctor, another one - two repairman. The tank of the battalion comander took the battalion operations officer on board.

      Nahal Saluki runs from south to north to the Litani River. Elevation around wadis - about 200 m (wadi itself at an altitude of 200 m above sea level, the height around her - 400 m above sea level). Any more-or-less flat areas were covered with agroculture terraces, which restricted the movement of tanks by roads, narrow and winding.

     Battalion went down to the Saluki from east to west along wadi Briha, and then began to move to the west to the village Anduriya (Randuriya). The village Faroon is located to the north from Anduriya. In both villages, the militants of the "Hezbollah" with "Kornet" ATGMs (known photos of captured "Kornets" - from Anduriya). At this time the infantry battalions fought in the two villages in order to establish control over the heights and secure the tanks. By the beginning of the movement control was not yet installed, and the presence of our infantry in villages created difficulties with returning fire by tank (it was impossible to call artillery fire or air support in the villages, and our own direct fire could only be done against detected ATGM launching positions).

     

      So, during the movement of the 9th battalion it was shelled several times. The first firing was from the village Faroon from 2400 meters distance, when the battalion crossed the Saluki after leaving the wadi Briha. During this shelling an injury (shrapnel) received battalion commander (armor of his tank was not penetrated). The second tank (squadleader's tank) in the same shelling lost main gun barrel.

      After that there was a powerful land mine (2 tanks managed to drive past it, and one still did not reached it, so there was no damage from the explosion to vehicles, but the road was torn appart), and 3 more "salvos" (attacks) with ATGM, 2nd salvo did not managed to hit tanks, 3rd and 4th managed to score hits. Main source of the ATGM attacks was Faroon village. RPGs and small arms fire was incoming from Anduriya, as I understand from the book there were no losses from this fire.

      In total 6 tanks were hit, 3 of them were "out of order" (were damaged). 3 tank crew members were killed (all killed tankmans were from company commander Lamed tank, including the company commander himself), 10 were injured (including one on the same tank as Lamed company commander)."

[Collimatrix]

 

 

the presence of our infantry in villages created difficulties with returning fire by tank

 

 

Good argument for 30mm coaxial; the dangerous blast radius and sabot danger areas of 120mm ordnance are quite large.

 

Also, good argument for better remote sensors, periscopes and other situational awareness improving aids; so Israeli commanders can end their long tradition of going into combat with their heads out of the hatch!

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

 

[Collimatrix]

Strangest looking merkava I ever saw...

[LoooSeR]

Spike-Magach is just like Merkava - except every single detail!

[LoooSeR]

Interesting vehicle of Palestine oppression by evil Jews.

 

[LoooSeR]

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 

 

That vehicle with frontal hatch does look little bit strange.

 

 

 

 

Well, becuase i spamming pictures of Isreal vehicles...

 

Engineering is srs bsns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isreal prototype heavy IFV.

 

 

Very protected, especially those guys on top.

 

[LoooSeR]

[Collimatrix]

Originally posted on Tanknet:

 

 

Sven Berge, designer of S-tank and Israel Tal, father of Merkava, conspire to make a bizarre, but unstoppable super-tank.

[LoooSeR]

Originally posted on Tanknet:

 

...

 

Sven Berge, designer of S-tank and Israel Tal, father of Merkava, conspire to make a bizarre, but unstoppable super-tank.

I even have a picture of that vehicle - combining S-tank shape and high-level of crew protection with rear door.

 

 

 

 

Trololo, comrade.

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

 

Magah was burned down by negligence of the crew, mid 90s, Shizafon base.

 

IDK exactly from where are those photos, but AFAIK those are from Israel shooting range.

 

 

 

This T-54 was acting as target for practice.

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

http://vk.com/video-79534_171204252

[Walter_Sobchak]

http://vk.com/video-79534_171204252

That is a terrible noise.  

[Tied]

That is a terrible noise.  

 

physiological warfare walt

[Collimatrix]

Some interesting comments on the crew situational awareness aids and digitization in Merk IV:

 

 

 

The two examples I can give are the Weapon Intgrated BMS (weapon orientation & target handoff from off board sensors) and the way in which any of the turret crew (including the loader) can conduct a target engagement sequence. From the loader's position, I identified a target with the commander's independent viewer, slewed the turret to align with the target, switched to the gunner's primary sight, ranged to the target and could've fired, had ammunition been loaded. The ability of any screen in the vehicle to display imagery from any camera on the vehicle, plus the ability for to operate the turret from the commander's, gunner's, and loader's positions, should that be required, indicated (to me) a high level of digitisation. 

[LoooSeR]

[Life_In_Black]

I haven't posted in this thread in a while, so have some photos I found the other day on fresh.co.il, of the wooden mockup:

 

And here's that same section of the glascis attached to a jeep:

 

And some photos of the wooden model taken at the Batey ha-Osef Museum in Tel Aviv:

 

Of note is the Sholef wooden mockup in the background which dates those last two as being sometime much later than the other photos. ANd while we're on the subject of Batey ha-Osef Museum, here's a photo of a Merkava prototype chassis there (among some other Merkava prototypes/variants IIRC):

 

And here are what appear to be stills from a video of a Merkava prototype moving under its own power, probably sometime in 1974 or 1975:

 

And I found better versions of some already available photos, this time of the Magach turret mounted on a Merkava prototype chassis:

 

And lastly, we come full circle with pictures of the Merkava's official unveiling in 1978:

 

Just an FYI, I haven't posted these to my Israeli tech tree thread over on the WoT forums yet, so I would appreciate not sharing them around too much until I get around to doing that.I mean, I know they're available online since I found them, but near as I can tell, most of these probably haven't seen the light of day in ages outside of some Israeli sites.

[Marsh]

Hi,

 

The wooden mock up was dated 1970. It was followed by at least two proof of concept vehicles in the same year. The first was based upon a Centurion hull minus its turret. the test mule had its hull widened, its drive sprockets reversed from rear to front and its powerpack placed in the front. The second test mule had the same hull configuration, but its turret replaced with a weighted casing. As you can see, there were a number of other test mules produced with different turrets etc, between 1970 and 1974.

 

Four Merkava prototypes commenced their trials in 1974 and the production process telescoped to accelerate entry into service as soon as possible. Thus the Merkava 1 that entered service was still a development model and underwent a series of upgrades both on the production line and at the ordnance base at Tel ha Shomer after entry into service. If you know what to look for, you can see interesting hybrids of Merkava 1 and 2 in old photos. The latter was really the full production model.

 

cheers

Marsh

[Collimatrix]

I would be willing to believe, having scrutinized these pictures more, that the Merk IV has more glacis protection than the Merk III since its engine appears to intrude less into the frontal hull.  More room for fancy shit.