Comments by "" (@tomk3732) on "The Merkava Main Battle Tank - Tank Overview/Opinions" video.

  1. Its more of a IFV with tank level protection and fire power. Hence the troops that can dismount - a whopping 6. That is comfortable level of BMP-1 (!!!). This IFV cross is causing a huge weakness in armor for its weight class - you simply cannot protect up to 10 (!) people with the same level as just 4 people in say Abrams tank. Or 3 people in say T-14 or even T-90 series. This forces the designers to concentrate on just the front of the vehicle with weak armor all around every other part supplemented by heavy ERA. A lot of modern western IFV are getting heavier so they may soon approach Merkava in capability and protection - thus maybe Israel was a pioneer here of a modern IFV.
    1