Jim R
SMF Supporter
Hi Alistair
Nice to see the running gear all in place with no mishaps. Looking great.
Jim
Nice to see the running gear all in place with no mishaps. Looking great.
Jim
That sounds like a very clever ideaI use kitchen foil to cover the wheels & tracks
Since the 1950s, tanks haven’t been classed as light/medium/heavy anymore, but rather on their intended role. The Merkava is a main battle tank or MBT — that is, the principle combat vehicle of the army. The Merkava 4 weighs about 65 tonnes, though, which is fairly typical for a modern western MBT.how many tons is she in real ? an is this a medium tank or heavy tank grade ? sorry but I don't know much about tanks
THANKS Jakko for info on this much appreciated but boy what a tank I really love the shape an the mean lookin main gun what is its mm ?Since the 1950s, tanks haven’t been classed as light/medium/heavy anymore, but rather on their intended role. The Merkava is a main battle tank or MBT — that is, the principle combat vehicle of the army. The Merkava 4 weighs about 65 tonnes, though, which is fairly typical for a modern western MBT.
120 mm. It fires the same ammunition as its German (Leopard 2) and American (M1 Abrams) counterparts, but not as the British 120 mm guns from Chieftain and either of the two Challengers.I really love the shape an the mean lookin main gun what is its mm ?
I didn’t have the weight to hand, but it’s easy to find outJakko - thanks for supplying Chris with the weight & designation info (I knew I could rely on you to have that stuff to hand!)
120 mm. It fires the same ammunition as its German (Leopard 2) and American (M1 Abrams) counterparts, but not as the British 120 mm guns from Chieftain and either of the two Challengers.
I didn’t have the weight to hand, but it’s easy to find out
Yes, exactly, the British 120 mm guns are all rifled, the German one (and all those firing the same ammo) are smoothbore. The British guns also have two-piece ammunition, with the projectile and propellant being loaded separately (technically even three-piece: the firing tube also has to be loaded separately) and a bagged charge for the propellant, while the German-type rounds are one-piece with a mostly combustible cartridge case that leaves only the bottom bit (sometimes called the ashtray, as that’s what it looks like more than a bit).
thanks for that info Jakko ive learned something eles todayThe main British argument for the separate loading, IIRC, was that it allows the propellant to be stowed in the hull rather than the turret, drastically reducing the risk of fire in the tank: most tank fires and explosions are caused by the propellant being ignited by a hit to the ammunition, rather than by an engine or fuel tank hit, and tanks get hit in the turret much more than in the hull (this is also what made the late model of the M4 medium tank, AKA the Sherman, the safest tank to be in in the Second World War: relocating the ammo bins to the floor). The Germans and Americans solved this problem with automatic fire extinguishers, armour between the ammo stowage and the crew compartment, and blow-off panels: if the ammo takes a hit and it doesn’t get extinguished but explodes, part of the turret roof gets blown off to vent the force away from the crew. This has, AFAIK, saved multiple American lives in Iraq.
The Merkava, to bring this back to the model being built here, uses different arrangements, including protecting ammo and crew using — wait for it — the fuel tanks. These are deliberately placed around the outside of the vehicle so they and their contents can act as armour. The number one priority in the Merkava was crew survival, on the principle that a new crew for a usable tank is much harder to come by than a new tank for a homeless crew.
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