My Gun Not Yours
16-12-2004, 19:45
IED = Improvised Explosive Device. As a side note, nearly all IEDs in Iraq are in the "scores of kilograms" range. And the targets are trucks (in some cases armored trucks) not tanks. A tank will always be far, far more protected than any armored truck.
IDF Downplays Merkava Hit, But
Palestinians Have Struck Israel's
State-Of-The-Art Tank
By Amnon Barzilai
Ha'aretz Correspondent
and Ha'aretz Service
February 16th, 2002
IDF officers on Friday downplayed the fact that the Palestinians had succeeded in penetrating Israel's state-of-the-art Merkava 3, but the army, clearly concerned, continued to investigate how the world's most protected tank had been penetrated, after three soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Thursday when a large bomb was detonated under their tank.
"The blow is painful, but I say to you honestly that I am not surprised that it happened," Brigadier General (Res.) Hanan Bernstein, former head of the IDF's Merkava division and commander of the tank training school, told Israel Radio on Friday morning. The Merkava will continue "to be considered amongst the world's best tanks" Bernstein said, but added that the attack demonstrated the ongoing struggle between those developing protection for the tank crew and those developing weapons designed to harm them.
"We all need to understand that there is no end to this battle between... the ability to protect [the tank crew] and the ability to harm [them]," he said. "And this time, like in the past, those who want to kill us found a way to pinpoint a weak spot, and the Merkava, like any system, no matter how advanced, also has weak spots."
The Merkava 3 - the third generation in a line of tanks which has been specifically designed to meet the operational demands of the IDF - is considered to be the most protected tank around. The last time a crewmember was killed in a Merkava was in southern Lebanon about five-and-a-half years ago, when the tank was hit by an anti-tank missile.
Israel Radio reported that in Thursday's attack, the tank's turret was blown off, landing several meters away, and that the blast gouged a 1.5-meter hole in the ground.
The father of the Merkava, who also served as the head of the project until two years ago, is Major General (Res.) Yisrael Tal. To date, more than NIS 20 billion has been invested in the Merkava's development and more than 100 Israeli factories take part in constructing the tank.
The tank's development was based on the lessons of the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The main goal of the latest model was to better-protect its four-member crew - driver, gunner, loader-signaler and commander. The project primarily attempted to prevent, even in cases of a direct hit, the spread of fire inside the tank, which has in the past led to the deaths of the crew. With this in mind, the tank was designed with no hydraulic systems whatsoever, but only electrical systems.
The Merkava's turret, for example, is rotated by an electric motor developed by Israel's Elbit Systems, which replaced the hydraulic motor that ran on oil and often burst into flames when hit.
The tank's protective shell is one of the most closely guarded secrets. In order to increase the tank's chance of survival against bombs or mines that detonate alongside or underneath it, or against hits by anti-tank missiles, an especially thick armor was developed to cover the Merkava. In some parts of the tank, that armor is almost one-meter thick.
The emphasis placed on its armor makes the Merkava one of the heaviest tanks in the world, weighing in at about 65 tons. It has a 1,200 horsepower engine and carries 1,000 liters of fuel. Even so, it is considered to be fast, capable of reaching speeds of 65 kilometers (40 miles) per hour. The tank carries 50 shells with a 120-millimeter diameter, mortars, smoke bombs and thousands of rounds of light ammunition.
Yet despite all these features, the tank is not impregnable, as Bernstein concedes. He refrained from revealing "to those who want to kill our sons" the specific points of vulnerability, but said those who had carried out the attack "found a point, or one of the spots, it would be more correct to say." He did add that the Merkava's underbelly is less protected than the rest of the tank.
He also said that it was always possible to increase protection for the tank crew, but that this comes at the expense of the tank's speed and maneuverability, due to the weight of the armor and, consequently, the larger engine that would be required. These considerations, he said, had been taken into account in the past and that they "are always reopened for discussion in light of new circumstances," such as Thursday night's attack.
The game of cat and mouse, he concluded, would continue no matter what changes were made. "Just as in Lebanon, after a Merkava tank was damaged and a crewmember was killed, the development team was asked to provide an answer," Bernstein said. "I am sure that the current team will provide an answer to [what happened on Thursday], but I am sorry to say that it will not end there."
IDF Downplays Merkava Hit, But
Palestinians Have Struck Israel's
State-Of-The-Art Tank
By Amnon Barzilai
Ha'aretz Correspondent
and Ha'aretz Service
February 16th, 2002
IDF officers on Friday downplayed the fact that the Palestinians had succeeded in penetrating Israel's state-of-the-art Merkava 3, but the army, clearly concerned, continued to investigate how the world's most protected tank had been penetrated, after three soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Thursday when a large bomb was detonated under their tank.
"The blow is painful, but I say to you honestly that I am not surprised that it happened," Brigadier General (Res.) Hanan Bernstein, former head of the IDF's Merkava division and commander of the tank training school, told Israel Radio on Friday morning. The Merkava will continue "to be considered amongst the world's best tanks" Bernstein said, but added that the attack demonstrated the ongoing struggle between those developing protection for the tank crew and those developing weapons designed to harm them.
"We all need to understand that there is no end to this battle between... the ability to protect [the tank crew] and the ability to harm [them]," he said. "And this time, like in the past, those who want to kill us found a way to pinpoint a weak spot, and the Merkava, like any system, no matter how advanced, also has weak spots."
The Merkava 3 - the third generation in a line of tanks which has been specifically designed to meet the operational demands of the IDF - is considered to be the most protected tank around. The last time a crewmember was killed in a Merkava was in southern Lebanon about five-and-a-half years ago, when the tank was hit by an anti-tank missile.
Israel Radio reported that in Thursday's attack, the tank's turret was blown off, landing several meters away, and that the blast gouged a 1.5-meter hole in the ground.
The father of the Merkava, who also served as the head of the project until two years ago, is Major General (Res.) Yisrael Tal. To date, more than NIS 20 billion has been invested in the Merkava's development and more than 100 Israeli factories take part in constructing the tank.
The tank's development was based on the lessons of the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The main goal of the latest model was to better-protect its four-member crew - driver, gunner, loader-signaler and commander. The project primarily attempted to prevent, even in cases of a direct hit, the spread of fire inside the tank, which has in the past led to the deaths of the crew. With this in mind, the tank was designed with no hydraulic systems whatsoever, but only electrical systems.
The Merkava's turret, for example, is rotated by an electric motor developed by Israel's Elbit Systems, which replaced the hydraulic motor that ran on oil and often burst into flames when hit.
The tank's protective shell is one of the most closely guarded secrets. In order to increase the tank's chance of survival against bombs or mines that detonate alongside or underneath it, or against hits by anti-tank missiles, an especially thick armor was developed to cover the Merkava. In some parts of the tank, that armor is almost one-meter thick.
The emphasis placed on its armor makes the Merkava one of the heaviest tanks in the world, weighing in at about 65 tons. It has a 1,200 horsepower engine and carries 1,000 liters of fuel. Even so, it is considered to be fast, capable of reaching speeds of 65 kilometers (40 miles) per hour. The tank carries 50 shells with a 120-millimeter diameter, mortars, smoke bombs and thousands of rounds of light ammunition.
Yet despite all these features, the tank is not impregnable, as Bernstein concedes. He refrained from revealing "to those who want to kill our sons" the specific points of vulnerability, but said those who had carried out the attack "found a point, or one of the spots, it would be more correct to say." He did add that the Merkava's underbelly is less protected than the rest of the tank.
He also said that it was always possible to increase protection for the tank crew, but that this comes at the expense of the tank's speed and maneuverability, due to the weight of the armor and, consequently, the larger engine that would be required. These considerations, he said, had been taken into account in the past and that they "are always reopened for discussion in light of new circumstances," such as Thursday night's attack.
The game of cat and mouse, he concluded, would continue no matter what changes were made. "Just as in Lebanon, after a Merkava tank was damaged and a crewmember was killed, the development team was asked to provide an answer," Bernstein said. "I am sure that the current team will provide an answer to [what happened on Thursday], but I am sorry to say that it will not end there."