Merkava invincible?

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by gingertanker

"Invincible"


Protection: A Merkava 4 is incredibly solid at the front. We are talking about stopping Kornets. Like all tanks the sides and rear are significantly less well armored.

You can say that again. And not "just" missiles but APCR from a 125mm Russian tank cannon (125mm Gun 05) with average PEN of 96 within 650 meters. It goes below the Merkava 4M's frontal threshold of 88 on the turret at 850 meters though, and therein lies a tale:

In a campaign scenario set in 2018, an advance against Russia, a Merkava had come to the last 50 meters of a shelterig gully which had a "keyhole" LOS passing obliquely just forward of a platoon each of what must have been T-80UMs and T-72BIMs about a kilometer away. I'd done this 'cuz a BMP or some other AFV a short distance from the exit was preventing infantry from advancing beyond said gully.

So the Merk blows away the vehicle, no problem, and then backs up (?!) to allow easier passage of infantry. Unfortunately I either hadn't set its facing properly or the reverse algorithm considers obstructing terrain and units. Whatever.

In any event, instead of backing up through the gully it popped back onto an adjacent hex 5 meters higher in full (thermally assisted) view of most enemy armor. Nothing to do but sit and watch in vicarious horror as perhaps 6 or 7 sabot spikes and 3 or 4 Invar missiles smashed into the turret, maybe 10 or 11 shots in all.

Incredibly there was no damage at all, just moderate suppression. Being at higher elevation than the firing units was what saved it, since the hull is 10cm thinner up front. (Who was it that said being hull down doesn't make any difference? Me? Never mind!)

The point being that Merkavas are tough nuts to crack. And next time I'll just turn tail while going back through a gully .

[gingertanker]

It is quite possible that the front armor on Mk4 in game is over powered. Truth is no one here knows. I am the closest to knowing and I don't have actual numbers. I can say that stopping an Invar is 100% realistic, but I do not know about the rusky KE rods. No one knows.

[DRG]

All we can do is guess based on sometimes very sketchy information. I'm sure someone somewhere knows the exact values but there are RL variables that make things like this not so much a mathematical exercise of 1+1=2...more like 1+1 = (maybe). The best we can hope for is "close enough" and in that, I think we are. The only way to know for certain, for example, the front armour values( and even that is uncertain ) would be if a known weapon with known ( and verified )penetration values knocked out at least 3 from the front and it was reported but I just don't see that happening.

But... what I am curious about and it's not OPSEC......how close am I on the colour of the Merk 4's ?

[gingertanker]

I think the color is p. damn close.

[DRG]

And that is what I hoped. I looked at a number of photos but each one is slightly different due to lighting, wear, dust etc. I am still surprised what I can get from 173 Icon usable colours from a 256 colour palette

[DRG]

Are we a bit too early with the Eitan ISD ...or is that OPSEC?

[gingertanker]

AFAIK it's not quite operational yet. If I had to guess (which I do because I do not know) I would put a date of mid to late 2019. There are for sure several units being tested in the Nahal brigade but I doubt they are fully online. I have not taken the time to check out the unit in game if I do and have something useful to add I will in due protocol.