Understanding Merkava 4 armor protection. Part 1 of 3
EDIT: added an illustrative schematic in the KE protection section. Introduction The Merkava family of tanks is one of the most unique among modern tanks. Its latest incarnation -and quite possibly, the last-, Merkava 4 represents the culmination of a design philosophy. Whereas the evolution from Merkava 1 through Merkava 3 was done in a more piecemeal fashion (that is, upgrading individual components or areas from the tank from model to model), Merkava 4 is a whole new clean sheet design, that only shares with a predecessor the weapons, both Main Gun and machine guns, making it unique even among its family. That uniqueness has made several aspects of the tank difficult to comprehend. In the present article we aim to analyze a particular aspect of the tank, that being its armor. We will not delve into the protection of the tank considered as a whole. Instead using photographic evidence, patents published by Rafael Systems over 20 years ago (and for some reason apparently unknown t...