Re: The Merkava 4 MBT
Loktarr, believe you me, if IMI has designed this Merkava version hoping it will be fielded by Tsahal, they have made a very thick door indeed. Besides, the door is quite narrow, and stacked between two huge armored baskets which are definitely added on top of the armor, so if a projectile gets a grazing hit on the edge of the door it is bound to trip into the REAL armour and bounce into the basket, hurting no one (except for the mechanics, of course).
Look at pitures of the Namera APC, you will see how narrow is this rear "shell trap". Apparently only one man can come on/off at a time, even on the APC version.
On another matter, the Abrams as a pretty good shell trap under the gunbarrel too. It IS very small but opens right onto the turret ring. I don't know how much armor there is suposed to be at this point, where the barrel has to move into for positive angles.
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