Merkava.

[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.