The Merkava, Israel's Chieftain?

[LoooSeR]

Uparmored Merks (2?)

 

 

[Marsh]

Hi LooSeR. Yes Merk 2 Batash with armour modules specifically designed to defeat heavy ATGMs. Also note the side skirts which extend upwards.

Marsh

[LoooSeR]

NERA, i guess?

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUxrMW04tXs

[Marsh]

NERA, i guess?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUxrMW04tXs

Probably Kryptonite in the modules . . . . .

I do know of one instance where this particular model of Merk was hit by two heavy ATGMs (early model TOWs I believe). I know from someone who was at MANTAK at the time, that it generated a huge volume of traffic from the US, who were mightily impressed with the performance of the armour modules.

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

[Collimatrix]

This picture illustrates why I'm dubious of active protection systems.

 

How well can the threat warning sensors work when the tank is surrounded by dust?

 

If the tank fires, it will throw up a cloud of dust that persists for up to several minutes, depending on conditions.  Even moving throws up a decent amount of dust.

[Life_In_Black]

This picture illustrates why I'm dubious of active protection systems.

 

How well can the threat warning sensors work when the tank is surrounded by dust?

 

If the tank fires, it will throw up a cloud of dust that persists for up to several minutes, depending on conditions.  Even moving throws up a decent amount of dust.

 

I was actually told by a former Merkava III commander that they rely on the dust to blend in with the base color and camouflage the tank to its current operating environment, as they don't use camo paint at all.

[Marsh]

To Life_in _Black.

 

From the Merkava III onwards, when they received their initial paint job at Tel ha Shomer, basalt blocks were fed in a crusher. Then the finely crushed rock is passed through a hopper. The fine grit is then added to the grey/olive paint sprayed on the tank. The noise is absolutely unbearable. It is a clever, if primitive, method of camouflage. Any environmental dust sticks to the tanks paint job, it is a bastard to clean off in fact. Thus a Merkava operating on the Golan will look a different hue to a Merk in the Negev.

 

In this era of multi-spectral sensors, the IDF need to move on. Hence Fibrotex . . . . .

 

To collimatrix. You are mistaken. what you consider a problem is a non-issue. Frequencies used are not affected. Making the fire control system work well in a dusty environment with a resultant thermal plume was a real problem to solve. Your point simply isn't an issue, sorry.

 

cheers

Marsh

[Collimatrix]

 

To collimatrix. You are mistaken. what you consider a problem is a non-issue. Frequencies used are not affected. Making the fire control system work well in a dusty environment with a resultant thermal plume was a real problem to solve. Your point simply isn't an issue, sorry.

 

cheers

Marsh

 

 

Interesting.  What sort of spectrum cuts through dust, I wonder?  Short-wave radar?

 

Extrapolating further, are there any EM frequencies that penetrate effectively through smoke?  If so, how effective would smoke grenades be in the future?

[Life_In_Black]

To Life_in _Black.

 

From the Merkava III onwards, when they received their initial paint job at Tel ha Shomer, basalt blocks were fed in a crusher. Then the finely crushed rock is passed through a hopper. The fine grit is then added to the grey/olive paint sprayed on the tank. The noise is absolutely unbearable. It is a clever, if primitive, method of camouflage. Any environmental dust sticks to the tanks paint job, it is a bastard to clean off in fact. Thus a Merkava operating on the Golan will look a different hue to a Merk in the Negev.

 

In this era of multi-spectral sensors, the IDF need to move on. Hence Fibrotex . . . . .

 

To collimatrix. You are mistaken. what you consider a problem is a non-issue. Frequencies used are not affected. Making the fire control system work well in a dusty environment with a resultant thermal plume was a real problem to solve. Your point simply isn't an issue, sorry.

 

cheers

Marsh

 

Interesting, my friend left that out about the basalt being used to make the dust stick to the paint. Then again, he probably didn't know all things considered. This explains the look of the paint on most Merkavas.

[Walter_Sobchak]

I guess that means that if I ever do another scale model of a Merkava, I don't have to be too particular about the shade of the paint or if some dust settles on the paint job.  

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

Merks 4s with Meil Ruakh APS.

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

[LoooSeR]

 

The biggest Merkava 3 secret revealed!    

[Collimatrix]

Pop-out headlights?  Like a corvette?  Sweet.

[Mike E]

That's the Glacis of a Mk.4? Doesn't look all that thick to be honest...nor is it sloped enough to not need to be well-sloped...

 

Corvettes need to bring back the pop ups 

 

Also, the modular turret armor won't hold up if it gets un-angled in any way. I used to think the Merkava was super-heavily armored, if anything it is just "well-armored" but with good methods of containing a penetration. 

Edited July 17, 2015 by Mike E

[LoooSeR]

    IDK, maybe parts were removed from UFP before making this photo. Hard to say how thick it actually is, because vehicle is giant, which creates feeling that glacis is nothing to speak about.

[Mike E]

    IDK, maybe parts were removed from UFP before making this photo. Hard to say how thick it actually is, because vehicle is giant, which creates feeling that glacis is nothing to speak about.

Kind of doubt that... It appears like the Glacis is a simple two-material laminate or composite angled at around or just over 60 degrees. My guess would be it is roughly 100 mm thick, and unless it has a super high ME that angling will only make it a few hundred RHAe. Though RHAe can not simulate the effects of a composite on any round. I think IDF took the easy excuse of "well the engine is up there" in order to get away with this. 

 

That picture also makes the hull roof look to be around half of the Glacis in thickness.

[Life_In_Black]

That's the Glacis of a Mk.4? Doesn't look all that thick to be honest...nor is it sloped enough to not need to be well-sloped...

 

Corvettes need to bring back the pop ups 

 

Also, the modular turret armor won't hold up if it gets un-angled in any way. I used to think the Merkava was super-heavily armored, if anything it is just "well-armored" but with good methods of containing a penetration. 

 

I don't think it's all that thick either, as everything I've seen seems to indicate it's relying on the slope of the armor much more than the thickness of the armor. Like here for instance:

 

That's why I named this thread the way I did, because the Merkava really seems like a further ev olution of the Chieftain, which makes sense given the Merkava's origins. My personal tinfoil hat theory is that the reason the armor is still technically classified is because the armor is really much thinner than they want to let on.

[Priory_of_Sion]

Any pics that show the Merk's lower plate? The upper plate seems meh, but it should be decent for any Syrian AFVs and most insurgent AT weapons. 

[Life_In_Black]

Any pics that show the Merk's lower plate? The upper plate seems meh, but it should be decent for any Syrian AFVs and most insurgent AT weapons. 

 

http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/armored_personnel_carriers/namera/Namera.htm There are photos there for the Namer which shows the lower plate and the armored fuel tanks that fill the space between the front section of the lower and part of the upper plate, as well as the wall behind the fuel tanks. Of note is that not only is the armor plates extremely thin all things considered, but the plates have interlocking welds, which is the only time I've seen that done for armored vehicles outside of WWII Germany.

[Collimatrix]

I don't think it's all that thick either, as everything I've seen seems to indicate it's relying on the slope of the armor much more than the thickness of the armor. Like here for instance:

 

 

That's why I named this thread the way I did, because the Merkava really seems like a further ev olution of the Chieftain, which makes sense given the Merkava's origins. My personal tinfoil hat theory is that the reason the armor is still technically classified is because the armor is really much thinner than they want to let on.

 

For those who haven't followed our little community, forum member Xlucine (Xlu) did some measurements with an ultrasonic probe on an early chieftain at Bovington tank museum.  Chieftain MBT has a reputation for extremely good armor protection based on armor thickness figures that have been repeated for years... and are completely wrong.  Chieftain was in fact only a bit better armored from the front than M60A1.

 

It was probably the best protected mass-produced tank ever made using regular steel armor (best ever made would be some horrifying Russian prototype, probably IS-7 or Object 279), but it was really only so-so protected against Warsaw Pact anti-tank weapons of the time.  Iraqi T-62s don't seem to have had too much trouble with Iranian chieftains.

 

And holy shit, I hadn't seen all of those pictures before, Life.  That does look thin.

 

Kind of doubt that... It appears like the Glacis is a simple two-material laminate or composite angled at around or just over 60 degrees. My guess would be it is roughly 100 mm thick, and unless it has a super high ME that angling will only make it a few hundred RHAe. Though RHAe can not simulate the effects of a composite on any round. I think IDF took the easy excuse of "well the engine is up there" in order to get away with this. 

 

That picture also makes the hull roof look to be around half of the Glacis in thickness.

 

Did the IDF ever claim that the engine and transmission improve crew protection?  I've come to interpret that line as outside interpolation.  It doesn't really make sense; the engine provides no frontal protection to the driver whatsoever because it's to the side of the driver.

 

Poking around a bit, I think Merk IV's hull protection is substantially based on what's underneath the hull armor.  The fuel tanks add extra protection vs. HEAT (and who knows, maybe they're the really fancy fuel tank designs that work well against KE too), and there are supposed to be some sort of bulkheads down there too.  The thickness between the driver and threats across the LFP looks OK, and is probably filled with fuel tanks and magical composites.  It's the glacis itself that's not so hot.

 

Not entirely unlike an abrams, although the abrams has a slopier and smaller glacis.