News for all things related to Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles
This POTD is taken from IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly, who are reporting that the IDF has unveiled a prototype of the Namer APC with a 30mm gun mounted in an unmanned turret. This represents a considerable upgrade in firepower over the existing Namer armament of a single .50 cal machine gun. Read more here.
All we know about this Israeli vehicle is that it some sort of proof of concept vehicle dating from the period of 1999-2003. Light tanks are not a category that the IDF has traditionally been all that excited about. (source)
Update: A google image search led us to this post from the For the Record blog which sources the photo to this Hebrew language book.
Back in July we posted on the Israeli Pereh missile tank. That post garnered more views than any other post we have done. As a follow up, here is a video and some images of the Pereh in action. Unfortunately, there is no English translation available for the video, but the images alone should prove quite interesting for those that are curious about his rather unusual vehicle.
Gallery of still images from the video
Today we present another article from ARMOR, this one from the May-June 2000 issue. This article is titled “The Merkava Mk.3 Defies its Critics” by David Eshel. Eshel is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the IDF and wrote several articles for ARMOR, a few of which focused on the Merkava. Last month we posted an article by Eshel on the Merkava Mk.4. Back in April we posted an ARMOR article on the Merkava Mk.2 by Richard Ogorkiewicz.
Jane’s has posted an article about the IDF missle-firing Peres artillery vehicle. Details of the vehicle have only recently released, despite the fact that it entered service in 1982. This vehicle has generated a great deal of discussion recently, as the true purpose of the vehicle has been revealed.
Interesting details from the article:
The manual guidance system restricts each Pere to having only one missile in the air at any given time, although a battalion of vehicles working together could potentially fire volleys at an enemy tank formation.Earlier this week the Israeli Defense Forces officially declassified the “Pereh” (Wild) anti tank guided missile launcher vehicle. Based on the hull of the M48 tank, the Pereh features a sizable turret with a fake gun barrel intended to hid its true mission of launching Tamuz ATGMs (also known as the Spike.) The large bustle on the back of the turret pops up to reveal the launcher tubes, of which there are twelve. According to Israel Defense, the Pereh has been in service for 30 years (!). Much speculation has been made in various online forums over the past few years as pictures of these vehicles have been leaked. Thus far it does not appear that any articles have been published in English on this vehicle. However, for those that are curious, Israel Defense has an article that is relatively readable using Google translate. Below is a gallery of some of the pictures of the Pereh that have surfaced on the internet, mostly drawn from this Israeli forum.
Haaretz is reporting that the IDF, after extensive field tests to explore the issue, has decided that female soldiers cannot serve in the tank corps. Among the difficulties identified in the tests were physical discrepancies between the women and men in tasks necessary within the combat compartment of the Merkava tank, particularly the loader position. In addition, evaluators examined the level of intimacy required among soldiers who are forced to spend days at a time locked into a small cabin while on operational duty. The privacy of a female combat soldier could at times be severely compromised under such conditions, the IDF found.
Today we present another article from ARMOR, the official journal of the armor branch. This piece is an evaluation of Soviet tanks by Lieutenant Colonel David Eshel of the Isaeli Defense Forces and it appeared in the May-Jun 1988 issue. In this article, the author focuses primarily on the T54/55 and the T62, since both of these vehicles were captured in large numbers by the IDF and pressed into service. Col. Eshel notes the many modifications that the IDF made to these vehicles as well as listing some of the problems they encountered with the Soviet designs. While Eshel makes many critical comments about these vehicles, he ends the piece with the following remarks:
In short, Israeli experience in tank combat reveals shortcomings in Soviet tank designs. However, Soviet tanks are, in principle, excellent fighting machines, combat proven and viable under field conditions. If manned by determined and highly-trained crews, they can be a most dangerous and deadly opponent.
The Jerusalem Post has an article about recent new training programs of the Israeli Defense Forces designed to boost cooperation between infantry and armored units. According to the article, infantry officers from the Nahal Brigade trained with tank crews from the 196 Battalion of the 460 Armored Brigade, at the Shizafon Advanced Armor training base in the South. “As part of lessons we learned from Operation Protective Edge [in the Gaza Strip last summer], we learned the necessity of close cooperation between tanks and infantry,” Lt.-Col. Rafi Wolfson, commander of the 196 Battalion, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. “For two days, Nahal commanders learned about our tanks, driving, firing and commanding over them. Full article here.
Tank and AFV News 