The IDF, additionally, is considering equipping the tank with so-called “non-lethal weapons” for crowd control and law enforcement type of operations. The Merkava now is being equipped with an underbelly charge plate, lightweight plows and mine rollers, specifically to deal with the urban threats, Livnat said. tanks in Iraq will suffer more underbelly strikes as insurgents seek new ways to defeat U.S. IDF vehicles also have been attacked with shaped charges that target the underbelly of the tank. The Muslim casbah is “the most challenging environment” for tanks, said Livnat.
Patrolling hostile urban areas in a tank can be dangerous, Livnat said, because the vehicles cannot maneuver as easily as light armored personnel carriers, and can be threatened by a range of weapons-from rocket-propelled grenades fired from tall buildings to trip wires and Molotov cocktails. Some of the tanks are run by infantry soldiers. The IDF made the equipment “easy to operate,” said Livnat, because not every crew is made up of professionally trained tankers. The tank operators can scan and observe from inside the vehicle, with the hatch closed. Removing the ammunition from the back of the tank opens up enough space to fit five soldiers, said Livnat. “We adapt the tank to operate as an infantry carrier,” Livnat told an industry conference sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. Yaron Livnat, the IDF technical director for the Merkava program.
The Merkava increasingly will be deployed in low-intensity conflict, said Col. IDF officials plan to modify Merkava main battle tanks so they can be employed en lieu of M113s, even though the tanks are much heavier and difficult to maneuver in urban terrain. The IDF subsequently decided that tanks increasingly will be employed to patrol disputed zones such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In early May, 11 soldiers traveling in two M113 light armored infantry carriers died when the vehicles exploded after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades in the Gaza Strip. In recent months, the IDF has made several modifications to their main battle tanks, so they can be employed as troop carriers in urban combat. Deadly attacks on light armored vehicles have prompted Israel Defense Forces to increase their use of main battle tanks in patrol roles or other types of low-intensity conflict normally assigned to smaller vehicles.
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