Well, the way that website is organized is a festering sore for sure. Frankly most of pictures simply refuse to load on my browser, so I have to withold my judgement.
That said with statements worded like this...
Quote:
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It should be noted that it is a ballistic military fact a MBT can not be destroyed, not even by one's own Air Force and artillery and even when it is on purpose!
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One can be forgiven if he starts looking for the closest pinch of salt
(OK not an IV but still...)
If you can post the pictures showing the internal arrangement of the rear compartment we can get a better idea. Preferibly one with both ammo and troops if available.
In tank design there is not such a thing such as free lunch. Increased volume
must mean either inferior protection or greater weight, basic geometry at work here.
Perhaps they decided they wanted both an APC level of troop carrying capacity, good armor and 40+ rounds at the same time.
In principle you can centainly have that.
But then I would expect a
very steep penalty in terms of weight for that, certainly those early rumors I heard about 90 tons Merkava IV would start to sound a lot more sensible in this case.