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Future of Merkava MK4 Tank in Question

by admin — last modified 2007-05-10 22:46

Israel: What (WHO) Will Replace the Merkava? Are Tanks to be added to the Long List of Armaments to be Purchased Abroad? If someone with common sense overrules this error in judgment, will the money be spent to protect the soldiers who man them?

After the summer Hizbollah-Lebanese war, Israel awoke to the following headline:

HEADLINE: Merkava tank production to stop within 4 years
[Globes Online,Israel | 28 Sep 06 16:21 | Amnon Barzilai]

 

 
"Globes" reported that a decision to stop production of the Merkava tank was made prior to the war. However, only recently it was announced that the Trophy anti-missile defense system would be added to some Merkava 3s, while it has already been included on the MK4 currently in production. During the war it appeared that there was no way to defend a tank against the new Russian missiles. What most Israelis didn't know was that a proven-effective tank defense system was readily available at a reasonable price IN ISRAEL but had not been deployed "in order to cut costs"!

In a country so frequently under full-scale attack, it would seem that the primary consideration would be strategic: Are the tank losses of the last war motivating this decision? If so, prior to making this decision, the earlier decision not to put the anti-missile defense system on these tanks should be evaluated. How many tanks would have been lost had this system been in place? Thirty-three soldiers paid with their lives for "someone's" incompetent decision and others will suffer from injuries for the rest of their lives. It needn't have been so.

As in all the wars forced upon Israel and as made evident by the  use of the latest Russian, Chinese, and Iranian armaments, military decisions are existential -- Israel cannot survive the shallow over-confident self-serving big-boy-on-the-block type of decisions that have recently shaken the foundations of Zion.

Israelis are now faced with the totally public, painful and expensive failure of some of the Sharon-appointed top military echelon. It is not even a matter of serious dispute: the current Prime Minister and Defense Minister are indeed unfit to govern and command.

We are facing a renewal of this war within a few short months. Shall they now continue to take the decisions which will put to risk the existence of the State of Israel?

  • Note: Even for a war lasting only 33 days, Israel had to request an arms airlift from the US.

  • Note: The existing Merkava 3 was not protected with readily available Israeli-developed anti-missile techology.

  • Note: No aggressive media offensive was in place to strengthen the hand of those few world leaders who WANTED to support Israel. What little defense there was against Arab propaganda came from bloggers.
  • Note: To the surprise of Israel's defenders, there was complete capitulation by Israeli leaders when faced with the UN initiative. There was total abrogation of all justified security demands when signing the UN brokered Ceasefire.
  • Note: The soldiers who "MUST BE RESCUED" are ALL still in captivity, location and condition unknown.
  • Note: There has been NO significant official Israeli protest raised against the Hezbollah non-compliance with the terms of the UN brokered ceasefire. Indeed, the statements coming forth do not relate to present reality; when Syria's Assad announces that there must be a major war against Israel soon, the government press office and government advisors counter with an announcement that neither Syria nor Israel REALLY want war, ergo, it won't happen.
  • Note: All of Syria's border troops have been moved from the Iraqi-Syrian border to the Israeli-Syrian border. The majority of Al Qaeda have fled into Syria from Iraq under pressure from the Sunni leaders.
  • Note: The continued presence of Syrian tanks on Israel's border is being ignored by the government.   However, at least the Israeli military is maintaining a high alert status along the Israeli side of the border. The protection of the Golan may once again depend on the Merkava MK4, this time properly armed.

Do they even grasp the magnitude of the threat of Russian, China, Iran and Syria forces fronted by Hezbollah's well-trained and well-armed army (for starters)?

Consider: Israel now has a growing unfriendly international force on the northern border who will lift no finger to enforce the ceasefire.... except against Israel.

In addition to purely strategical considerations, cessation of production of the tank here will bring about a huge economic impact. Thousands of workers are directly employed in production of the tank and its systems and there are a signicant number of subcontractors who will also suffer.

Not to be disregarded is the potential loss of corollary benefits which come out of development and profits from sales of armaments abroad...not a small industry in Israel.

Those who benefit from Israel's absence as a competitor in these areas are the same ones who will profit from Israel's need to purchase the same. 

However, there is an even higher price to be considered:

HEADLINE: US denies breaking UK rules on Israel bomb flights
Reuters | Peter Graff |Thursday, July 27, 2006; 10:25 AM

Even though the British Foreign Office and the US said the rules had been followed and the armament flights cleared, there were strong objections in Britain to the US use of Britian for refueling on the way to Israel.

  • Note: Given the above and past experience, if Israel were to suddenly need tanks or repair parts for a foreign tank, who is to guarantee that they could be supplied?

  • Note: Will there be some provision for replacement parts and upgrading of the 1600 tanks currently in stock?

  • Note: Can and will a large number of Merkava 3s be back-fitted with an active full perimeter defense which, among other features, is effective against laser-guided threats? Will updates include the Trophy active protection system?

  • Note: Plans for the Merkava Mk4 already include special modifications which prepare the tank to operate in urban environment of Low Intensity Conflict (so much for the "inappropriate to modern urban warfare" argument being put forward....). 

The argument being put forward is that "tanks are outdated and are not justified economically in modern warfare". However, since other major powers are still developing and improving their tanks for strategic use, apparently they know something that Israeli decision-makers don't know! Decisions based on cost alone can be very shortsighted. (For example, the bottom line has proven that not equipping the Merkava 3 with the anti-missile full parameter defense due to cost concerns was in itself a very costly mistake.) Military decisions based solely on cost inherently must include the worth of a young man or woman lost in war; it must include the value of the loss of a homeland.

Today, no less than in 1948, 1967 and 1973, the very existence of Zion hangs in the balance.