In the past forty years, only a few countries have demonstrated the ability to build their own main battle tanks
One such “tank power” is just a small country: Israel
The Israeli Merkava tank is one of the best MBTs ever produced
The birth of Israel in 1948 saw the formation of the Israel Defense Forces
Although initially possessing only a modest tank force, it also helped to repel attacks from neighboring Arab countries
By the war in 1956, the situation had improved significantly
And by 1967, Israel's Armored Corps had essentially won the "Six Days' War,"
with a tactical lightning attack across the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights
The Israeli tank force at the time, mainly American M48 and British Centurion, crushed the Arabs and quickly ended the war
Israel's pre-emptive strike on its neighbours, was not supported by some of its European allies
Britain canceled a joint tank development project, while France did not deliver more Mirage fighters and ships to Israel
The lesson for the Israelis is to reduce dependence on foreign powers; and in 1970, the IDF began to develop a tank of their own
The three main factors that define a modern tank are firepower, maneuverability, and protection
During development, Israel prioritized protection
Next is firepower
Apart from survival, the only way to win a war is to destroy enemy tanks
And finally, the maneuverability
As a small country, Israel is not capable of fighting long-term campaigns on large battlefields
The main gun of the Merkava I was the 105 mm M68, which was also the gun mounted on the Centurion, Patton and M60 tanks
Merkava I could carry 62 rounds, slightly above average to ensure the tank can fight in longer condition
In terms of secondary fire, the Merkava was armed with three machine guns
including a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun, and two additional 12.7 and 7.62 mm machine guns on the top of the turret for the commander and loader
In terms of maneuverability, the Merkava I version was only equipped with a 900 hp diesel engine, which powered the 63 ton tank
Therefore, Merkava had a relatively slow speed, a maximum of only 45 km/h
However this was also not important, since the length of the territory of Israel is only 423 km
Merkava entered service with the IDF in May 1979, and entered combat for the first time in 1982
when it confronted T-72 tanks of the Syrian Army in the Bekaa Valley
Merkavas destroyed eight T-72s at ranges up to 2,000 meters
The experience from the wars in which Israel has participated has led to new and increasingly improved versions of the Merkava
The latest version is Merkava IV, which retains the design priorities of Merkava I and incorporates a newly redesigned turret
modular explosive reactive armor and passive armor for faster damage repair in battle
The Merkava IV replaced the 105mm main gun with a 120mm smoothbore gun, with 58 rounds of ammunition, including LAHAT anti-tank missiles
It is also equipped with a more powerful 1,500-horsepower engine, for faster speeds
A more advanced active protection system is adopted: the Trophy
which uses a combination of turret-mounted sensors and interceptor rounds, to intercept enemy fire
Not resting on their laurels, the Israelis began developing a successor to the Merkava IV before it became obsolete, the Merkava V
Therefore, in the distant future, the Merkava will still be a hard to beat tank