No ERA for Greece, why?

[Wdll]

As far as I know, no tank or MBT of Greece has ERA armour on them, even the newer Leo2A6(HEL) and I wonder what am I missing, why this decision? ERA has shown advantages, so is it a financial matter, or something else?
Mind you I am not talking about the winSPMBT OOB where as far as I can tell has only the AMX30 as having such armour, but "real life".

Are the people in control (or deciders if you wish ) following the theory (or "theory") that tanks are obsolete, so why waste more money on them?

Is it plain stupidity?

Or do they have good enough armour as they are?

What do you guys think?

[Skirmisher]

I think maybe because anybody attacking Greece would have to deal with a NATO response. They might not need the advanced gear.

Are you absolutely sure they don't have them? Maybe they just didn't tell you and your sources.

[Marek_Tucan]

Design philosophy in the West seems to be more inclined to passive armour than to ERA, atleast with current MBT's, and for example Leo2A5/6 or Merkava 4 do carry additional armor modules, but in form of NERA or other layered beasties (much similar to the Russian T-55M / AM2 armor kit), from various reasons which I don't pretend I know
If you look say at Israel, you'll find that: Centurions and M60!s received ERA at first in Lebanon, but relatively soon the idea was dropped and Cents were passed out while Mag'ach's got passive arrays of increasing quality, finishing probably with Batash and Merkava 4.
So the decision why Greek tanks don't have ERA is prolly that a) the obsolete ones are well... obsolete so the cost would be higher than the benefit and the new ones have adequate protection already so again the investment would be moot.

[Wdll]

Thank you for your replies.

I am absolutely sure they don't have ERA.

Some info I found since my last post.

A)Extra weight was the main reason no ERA was placed on the Leo2s. They are quite heavy as they are and where they might operate (Thrace) not exactly the most tank friendly terrain available. There is talk about some active countermeasures to be installed on them, don't remember the name now, but one of them is of Israeli design.

B)I forgot.


Marek, there were reports that Kornet-E were used against Israeli tanks in Lebanon in the last conflict there and that they were the main reason behind the destruction/damage against several of IDF's tanks. I wasn't paying much attention there (other things) so, were those tanks protected by ERA? Of course Kornet-E at least in theory has a way to bypass ERA, but still, would be nice to know.

[Wdll]

I can't edit my last post for some reason so here is the B) I couldn't remember.

It looks like there is indeed a plan to withdraw from service by 2015 the whole 500 Leo1A5Gr and the remaining M60s (though not the M48A5MOLF for some reason) and replace them with Leo2s. Which would make the extra investment in ERA a bit of a mute point. Still, that is just in theory, which for me doesn't make much sense since the Leo1A5Gr were not acquired that far in the past and the M48A5MOLF are not exactly M1A1.

[Marek_Tucan]

AFAIR from the 2006 unpleasantness reports, the Kornet wasn't as bad as reported - The Merks that got totally destroyed were IIRC hit either by BIG IED or by ATGM's from the side, and most tankers killed/injured during the conflict were TC's/loaders hit by splinters from ATGM's exploding on tasnk while the crew was unbuttoned. Will have to check the reports though.

[Marcello]

ERA has several issues.
The early models, such as Blazer or Kontakt EDZ generated shrapnel when they detonated, which could be an additional danger to nearby infantry.
Then once a tile had detonated the area was left unprotected; this could be an issue especially for those arrays relying on relatively large blocks such as Blazer or Kontakt-5.
So while ERA has its own advantages it also has drawbacks which have limited its deployment in the West.
That being said it has seen some use in the western block too, most Bradley in Iraq are mounting ERA tiles for protection against RPGs, for example.