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Observations from Ukraine give Israeli tank designers ‘interesting ideas’

2nd June 2022 - 09:00 GMT | by Arie Egozi

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Trophy APS installed on a Merkava Mk 4 MBT. (Photo: IDF)

The evident vulnerabilities of Russian armour in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine have drawn the eye of Israeli MBT designers.

The IDF General Staff has set up a team to explore if there are operational lessons to be learned for Israel from the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, while work continues to develop the new Merkava Mk 5 MBT.

One conclusion is already supported by hard evidence: Russian tanks lag far behind the Israeli Merkava in almost all relevant aspects.

The fighting in Ukraine highlighted fundamental weaknesses of Russian armour in its inability to protect against or defeat ATGMs of various types, combined with poor communications and a failure to operate in a combined arms mission.

In addition, Russian armoured formations

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