Merkava.

[kevineduguay1]

From another site....


"Following the model of contemporary self-propelled howitzers, the turret assembly is located nearer the rear than in most main battle tanks. This gives the crew additional protection against a frontal attack by putting the engine between them and the front of the tank. This arrangement also creates an otherwise unused space in the rear of the tank that allows increased storage capacity, as well as a rear entrance to the main crew cabinet allowing easy access even under enemy fire. This allows the tank to be used as a platform for medical disembarkation, a forward command and control station, and an armored personnel carrier. The rear entrance's clamshell-style doors provide overhead protection when off- and on-loading cargo and personnel"

[Imp]

There is no disputing it can carry some passengers that much is obvious, unless you can find a better photo though Merk rear compartment is a tight space with 8 troops on board causing ammo to be stored against the rear hull.
The crew compartment is seperated from it by a wall with a doorway on the left (if facing tank front)
This arrangement looks therefore like it is not possible to use the storred ammo with passengers on board.
From a storage point of view does look more sensible than it sounds.
Rear hull has 2 large bustles attached with additional equipment in which will help defeat HEAT.
The ammo is as far away from the crew as possible & in a seperate compartment if fire fighting equipment needs to go off.
Any penetration in the dead space where the engine normaly is should be survivable by the tank with at worst some crew injury if internal wall spalls, several videos showing this.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Imp

Wheres gingertanker when you need him.

I've sent him a PM but I have no way of knowing if it's even going to an active account until he replys

Don

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by kevineduguay1

From another site....
This arrangement also creates an otherwise unused space in the rear of the tank that allows increased storage capacity, as well as a rear entrance to the main crew cabinet allowing easy access even under enemy fire. This allows the tank to be used as a platform for medical disembarkation, a forward command and control station, and an armored personnel carrier.

Putting the engine to the front does not automatically create any new space. By itself it only makes possible rear access and the creation of a multipurpose rear compartment.
But it a design choice which comes with trade offs.
Otherwise a simple "engine to the front" configuration would result in something like this:


Not much in the way of storage space, even if a rear hatch was added.

The Centauro has a configuration similar to Merkava: front engine, rear turret and rear hull access. But adding troops there means reducing ammo (or creating a lenghtened version, as it was done).

[Imp]

It is quite intresting actually if you look at a Merk side profile the turret is not that far back compared to a standard layout. This begs the question where is the fuel thats a very compact engine bay if a reasonable amount is stored forward. My thinking is wherever they have put the rest of the fuel has created the rear storage space.
Very quick unsubstantiated look capacity is between Leo 2 + Chally, Abrams obviously needs to carry a lot more.

[kevineduguay1]

If you had bothered to read that very disorganised site I posted you would have known thet the fuel in a Merk is stored between the hull plates. In other words both sides of the hull are the fuel tank. This arrangement also reduces the effect of HEAT rounds. The diesel fuel helps extingish the jet produced by an exploding HEAT round. It also eliminates the need for traditional fuel tanks ans saves more space in the vehicle. It is a self sealing system.


/Steel/Fuel/Steel/ Space \Steel\Fuel\Steel\

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by kevineduguay1

/Steel/Fuel/Steel/ Space \Steel\Fuel\Steel\

I would not be so sure of that. Granted, I can't vouch for the source but it seems consistent with what I have seen elsewhere in terms of composite armor.



I have not done any analysis of this pic but I don't see any sign of fuel leaks there.

[Imp]

The main tanks are I think beside the engine bay & either side on rear flanks, sandwiching between inner & outer hull would be a sensible place to stick those.

[kevineduguay1]

I can't explain it but I'm sticking by what I posted as fact.

Go to the MBT thread and read what FASTBOAT TOUGH posted. And watch the videos!

[kevineduguay1]

Go back to the site I posted on page 1. Jusy under that HUGE pic of the Merkava is another pic with the author in front of his Merkava. Click on that pic and watch the video. An Israeli tanker in the video says that the tank holds 4 crew men and 8 troops.

On fuel storage....

"With the use of spaced-armor techniques and quick-
replacement modular designs, the assembly line team was able to incorporate secret compositions of a derivative of Chobham type
ceramic armor, RHA ([[rolled homogeneous armor]]) and U.S. developed carbon epoxy fiber filament. It should be pointed out that a
further enhancement to crew safety was the use of the space between inner and outer armor walls to be filled with diesel engine fuel;
an excellent storage technique and a method to defeat HESH and HEAT enemy tank rounds. "

On rear compartment....

"This compartment has now been used as: a medical operating theater (Tankbulance), a forward
command and control center, a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) control tower, an ELINT forward operating office, an air-to-
ground FAC (Forward Air Control) station and a forward battle field command post. If this rear tank compartment contained
armed infantry, then up to 10 fully combat soldiers could be carried & the clam-shell door would allow for deploying these soldiers
while on the move under combat conditions and taking fire."

More.....

"Dateline: HaKirya, Tel Aviv (Israel's Pentagon) by Hirsh Goodman JPost Military Correspondent TUESDAY (May 17, 1977)
Defense Minister Shimon Peres (current President of Israel) officially acknowledged for the first time Saturday (14 May 1977)
that Israel is producing a main battle tank called the Merkava (Chariot). The announcement followed the unexpected public
disclosure in Washington D.C. by President Jimmy Carter of a most unusual pledge of $100 million dollars of U.S. funds to help
initial production of a new Israeli domestically built tank on Thursday (May 12, 1977). Coverage of this signing was provided by
JPost Washington Correspondent Wolf Blitzer (current CNN news anchor). This, up to now secret tank program is headed
by the Israel Armor Corps and by Aluf Israel Tal, a world authority and proponent of armor warfare since the beginning of the
decade. Peres elaborated that the Merkava has a typical crew of 4 and can carry as much as 92 rounds of 105mm ammo. He
also disclosed that this tank would be unconventional as certain lessons from recent wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973 have made
the Merkava the safest tank in the world. If only a basic load of 62 rounds were carried then up to 10 combat infantry can be
accommodated in a special rear compartment as the engine in the Merkava is in front which adds to its safety design."

The merkava was designed from the start to hold Combat Troop in the rear of the vehicle....

"President Carter focused world attention on this Israeli 'Black' secretive military enterprise with his public signing but, those needed funds did speed up tank assembly
so that by 30 April 1978 the first production examples of the Merkava Mark I tanks rolled out with one of them making the first official public appearance May 1978
during the annual Israel Independence Day celebrations at Jerusalem's main university stadium. A Merkava Mk I rolled slowly out onto the large elliptical race track to
the applause of many there that day, The four IDF tank crew members were announced & stood proudly up in their fighting compartment positions & waved to the crowd.
Then Colonel Avigdor Kahalani (tank hero of the '73 war) received the ceremonial 1st Keys from General Tal on behalf of the 1st armor group in the IDF to get the brand
new Merkava tank (7th Brigade). But, then, slowly the rear hull began to open up with these giant armored doors in a vertical clam-shell arrangement & the crowd fell
silent. No one had never seen anything like this, including the attending foreign military attachés that were in attendance. They could not believe their eyes when ten fully
armed combat soldiers began racing out on the lowered ramp of the clam shell door & then stood in formation in front of this 56 ton behemoth. All the while the complete
Merkava crew of Commander, Gunner, Loader and Driver stood in their tanks' open hatches. Fourteen fully armed troops in 1 Tank. There wasn't a dry eye in the
crowd that day. Me included! "

If this is not enough to convince you then I have no hope of doing so.