Merkava Tank. Israel's Armored Chariot

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, images of a destroyed Merkava Mk 4 tank circulated around the world. The machine, regarded as one of the best-armored tanks in the world and equipped with an active defense system called Trophy, was destroyed by a grenade dropped from a drone anti-tank grenade launcher.

The view of the destroyed tank provoked comments in the opinion that the legend of the exceptionally safe, well-thought-out, and crew-friendly Merkava is exaggerated. Could the critics of the Israeli tank be right? Nothing could be more wrong.

Yom Kippur War, during which in 1973, Israel was unexpectedly attacked from two sides by Egypt, Syria, and a coalition of Arab states, resulted in severe losses for the Jews.

Next to over 100 destroyed airplanes, the enemy also destroyed approximately 1000 Israeli tanks (some of them could be repaired and put back into service). Moreover, over half of the 2600 killed Israeli soldiers were tank crews.

At that time, the armored forces of Israel consisted of a true conglomerate of tanks from different eras and parts of the world. The tankers had at their disposal American M48 and M60 tanks (locally named Magach), British Centurions, French light tanks AMX-13, and World War II-era M4 Sherman tanks, upgraded to the M51 Isherman variant.

In the Israeli armed forces, there were also even a few hundred captured, older Soviet tanks serving, mostly the T54/T55.

The experiences gained from the Yom Kippur War led the Israeli authorities to decide on the need to standardize armored weapons and develop and implement their own tank. Thus the Merkava was born.

Engine at the front of the tank

Her main constructor, a tank operator with battle experience, Gen. Izrael Tal, had a difficult task ahead. It's important to remember that in the 70s, when the first Merkava was being built, Israel did not have access to special armor - multi-layer, built from materials of varying characteristics, protecting, among others, Abrams, Challenger, or Leopard 2 tanks.

Therefore, to maximize the crew's protection, the new tank employs armor made from several layers of steel with different properties. As an additional security measure, a differently located engine is used, which - unlike in other main tanks - is located at the front of the vehicle, next to the driver.

The design has made the Merkava stand out with the ability to exit the tank via a hatch located in the rear armor. This is important for the tactics of using these machines, which often serve at fortified positions, shielded from enemy fire, for example, by earth embankments.

In such a situation, even after a Merkava hit, the surviving crew has the option to exit the tank safely through the rear exit, without exposing themselves to enemy fire.

Although the rear exit and space inside the tank may give such an impression, Merkava was not designed to transport troops. In extraordinary circumstances, the rear hatch may accommodate a few people in great discomfort or perhaps a stretcher with a wounded man, but this requires the removal of most of the tank's ammunition supply.

The way it's transported in the Merkava Mk 4 is different than in most modern tanks. They didn't achieve complete separation of ammunition from the crew, like in the Abrams for instance. Instead, they implemented another interesting solution that increases safety.

The crew compartment contains only four shells. Another 10 are located in two revolver-like magazines in the turret niche, where - similar to the Abrams tank - on the ceiling of the ammunition storage there are blowout panels, through which the explosive energy is released outside the vehicle.

The rest of the ammunition is stored in the hull, but each round is in an individual fireproof container, which minimizes the risk of ammunition ignition in case of a hit.

The armor of the Merkava has evolved from version to version. The current shape of the tank, with its caricaturally large turret, is the result of the use of additional modules mounted on the basic armor, which cover both the hull and the turret itself.

Their large sizes provide space in which various mechanisms that mitigate the effects of a hit can operate, such as the movement of armor plates, which, after being hit by a projectile, move, damaging the anti-tank projectile penetrator or dispersing the shaped charge jet.

The Merkava designers focused on good bottom hull protection, as well as the top armor and side shields of the tank. Where other vehicles - like the K2 tanks - have thin, several-inch armor that's easy to penetrate, the Merkava has a robust shield capable of stopping even projectiles from older anti-tank grenade launchers.

Additional protection is provided by various components, such as batteries or a water tank, which surround the crew. The price for powerful armor protection is the weight of the tank, which in the Merkava Mk 4 version exceeds 143,300 lbs, and in the Mk 5 variant is estimated to be over 154,300 lbs.

Complementing the armor are systems mounted in the Israeli tanks WRE. These are, for example, jammers, preventing remote, radio detonation of improvised explosive devices. Merkava also has an interesting way of setting up smoke screens.

Besides using smoke grenades, the Merkava can create a smoke screen using its own propulsion system, by injecting fuel into the intake manifold. As stated in the video dedicated to the Merkava by Jaroslaw Wolski, fuel consumption then increases to over 52 gallons per minute.

An addition that has become a main standard in recent years, installed in particular on German or American tanks, is also the famous active hard-kill defense system (or destroying incoming missiles) Trophy. This is a set of sensors - flat antenna radars - and explosively formed projectiles, fired towards an incoming threat.

The Trophy not only neutralizes the incoming missile but also conveys to the fire control system information about the location from which - according to calculations - it was launched. This allows for quick and effective destruction of the attacking enemy tank.

The Trophy system - although currently considered the best in the world - is not without its faults. It is effective against projectiles moving at subsonic speeds, a fact that has been noticed by, among others, Hamas, who have included relevant notes in their training materials about the types of weapons that can effectively fire upon Israeli tanks.

Moreover, the mere existence of the Trophy does not ensure safety. For it to work, the system must be active, which was not the case with the Merkava destroyed by a Hamas drone. Why do crews turn off safety-enhancing systems?

All this is due to the fact that active defense systems protect the inside of the tank, but can be lethal to the people surrounding it. Therefore, the crew doing, for example, some work near their machine can deactivate the defense system, so as not to risk being hit by anti-missiles, fired by the defending tank.

The first Merkava tanks entered service in 1979. Since then, the tank has evolved - from version to version, its armor changed (Israel currently uses special armor), characteristic metal balls on chains appeared, protecting the rear of the tower, and the drive system was also modernized. The armament also changed: the rifled 105-mm cannon in the Merkava Mk 1 was replaced with a smoothbore 120 mm cannon used from the Mk 3 version.

The backbone of Cahalu's armored forces are currently the Merkava Mk 4s, the first examples of which entered service in 2004. At the same time, beginning in 2023, the first examples of the newest version of the tank - the Merkava Mk 5, are beginning to be delivered to the units.

The state of war in which Israel has found itself, however, has resulted in older tanks also being returned to service - Merkava Mk 3s, and even Merkava Mk 2s, which have been manufactured since 1983 and stored for many years.