Israel rethinking battlefield-tank strategy

By WND Staff

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The increasingly sophisticated Palestinian assaults on Israel tanks will force the Jewish state to review its battlefield tactics and its reliance on its heretofore cornerstone weapon system, according to Stratfor, the global intelligence company.

For the second time in a month, Palestinian militants have blown up an Israeli Merkava battle tank in the Gaza Strip, killing three soldiers.

The soldiers were killed March 14 when the tank they were in drove over a land mine buried on the Karni-Netzarim road in the Gaza Strip. The tank was escorting a civilian convoy when Palestinian militants hidden in a nearby mosque detonated the 110-pound charge, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The attack is the second successful strike by Palestinian militants against the 60-ton battle tank within the past month. This will likely convince Israel of the need to adapt to the Palestinians’ new shift to guerrilla tactics and will lead the Israeli military to re-evaluate its reliance on the Merkava, its main battle tank.

The Israel Defense Forces relies heavily on the tank as the front line of defense for ground forces entering areas under fire. It is also used as a key component for cavalry deployments, rescuing civilians under attack and escorting both civilian and military convoys through hostile territory, which right now is the entire Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The tank serves as a cornerstone weapon system because of the many capabilities it brings to the table. Most important, the Merkava can strike moving targets while it is also moving. Its 120-mm smoothbore gun, fitted with a thermal sleeve, serves as the main armament, and its 60-mm mortar capability packs enough firepower to blow down walls and anything else that blocks the way of advancing forces.

The modular armor, which covers both the turret and the hull, provides a high degree of protection to the tank crew and allows military forces to penetrate further into hostile areas than lighter armored personnel carriers, or APCs.

The tank allows the IDF to identify targets more than a kilometer away and quickly relay that information to engaging forces. It also serves as a deterrent force since its firepower and armor discourage engagement by lightly armed Palestinian militants.

However, now that the Palestinians have developed a successful tactic for attacking the tank, Israel will need to rethink its battlefield strategy. Israel’s options include reformulating its tactical hierarchy to rely more on APCs, which would allow for greater mobility and reduce the value of targets presented to the Palestinians. Unlike the massive, lumbering tanks, APCs are small, have greater speed and can move through alleys and roads closed to tank passage. They are also less expensive than the $3 million Merkava tanks.

But relying more on APCs will make the Israeli military increasingly vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenade attacks. This in turn raises the question of how capable the Palestinians are in launching such assaults. Though Palestinian militants are not known to use RPGs regularly, they did reportedly fire two grenades at a tank in Ramallah in early January. Several reports from Israeli sources list a handful of RPGs among Palestinian hardware.

Moving to APCs will also require greater air support for ground forces. This would come from attack helicopters and strike fighters like the F-16. In its helicopter arsenal, Israel has 21 AU-1Gs, 36 AH-1Fs, 30 Hughes 500MDs and 42 AH-64As. But relying on air power is costly, and even though it is much more difficult to strike aircraft with RPGs, they too are vulnerable to such attacks.

Since the Palestinians have limited RPG- and anti-aircraft capabilities at the moment, the issue arises of where could they acquire them should the IDF shift to greater reliance upon mobility and air power. Other groups in the region like Hezbollah do have RPG and anti-tank hardware.

Israel wants to downplay the recent tank attacks. “Such an explosive charge would blow up any tank in the world; we have to accept that these things will happen, ” said IDF Col. Meir Pail. “It’s a small victory for the Palestinians, but it does not question the performance of our tanks in battle,” Agence France-Presse reported.

Despite the military’s statements, the reality of the situation dictates that the IDF must rethink its reliance on the Merkava. It cannot tolerate a situation wherein the tank is subject to a proven threat and no steps have been taken to counter it.


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