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 .