Waylander said:Jup, that's right.
The equipment should be no problem because the plish brigade consists of the material we gave to them some years ago.
I don't know how good the organization is nowadays.
Sorry guys, but how does stopping the production in a five-years frame mean "canning the Merkava" altogether? Remember that the production has been running since 1978 or so, maybe it is time to switch to something else? There are still scores of non-upgraded Merkava Mk2s and possibly Mk-1s used by Tsahal, which would equate to the US Army still running a couple of divisions on IPM1s. Upgrading them doesn't require putting up newbuild tanks day in, day out.Wookie said:I haven't had time to look at it in detail, but I would tend to agree. Israel is one nation that shouldn't drop its tank fleet. And canning the Merkava when it has finally reached the stage that its designer intended 30 years ago??
Which also brings up the point that the merkava was designed to be improved in increments. Going about making a vehicle that way is expensive on paper (but less expensive then replacing your tank fleet with new every 10 years to match the planned upgrade process).
Now they are not planning tank production at all. TsAHAL decided there is no place for tanks in the future battlefields. Only the hevy ICVs 'Namer' and the light weeled ICVs 'Mantakit' will be in production. Look at the full hebrew text of that article in the Israeli 'Globes Mag': http://uploaded.fresh.co.il/2006/09/29/89333031.pdf http://uploaded.fresh.co.il/2006/09/29/90807022.pdf (the file exceed 100 kb limit).PlasmaKrab said:Remember that the production has been running since 1978 or so, maybe it is time to switch to something else?
PlasmaKrab said:Sorry guys, but how does stopping the production in a five-years frame mean "canning the Merkava" altogether? Remember that the production has been running since 1978 or so, maybe it is time to switch to something else? There are still scores of non-upgraded Merkava Mk2s and possibly Mk-1s used by Tsahal, which would equate to the US Army still running a couple of divisions on IPM1s. Upgrading them doesn't require putting up newbuild tanks day in, day out.
There are between 1500 and 2000 Merkavas produced, as far as I can tell, and that should be enough for Israel, given their current strategical situation. The sheer idea that some Israeli officials actually consider putting their tank fleet to a lower priority level may sound like a glimmer of hope in the current grim situation, meaning that open warfare with neighbouring countries is less a risk than 30 years ago. OK, that could also mean that they already own enough of them to beat the armies of the whole Middle East to pulp hands down... which they basically do.
Now, that really is interesting. Here we have tanks making a come back (of sorts) against the wheeled vehicle "LAV is all" types in Iraq and Israel are talking about pulling the plug.
Curious...
cheers
W
‘Something’ felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq – but what? http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292236-2336437.php
Hasn't this one been discussed earlier in this thread?
Bah. Going round in circles. I'm going back to trying to read 18th century Danish Kirkebøger. :unknown
Doing a bit of genealogy, eh? IIRC the Kirkebøger are available on the net, so I guess you read Danish...![]()
Yes, tracing my ancestors. Looking at Nyborg, early C18 right now. As for reading Danish - well, sort of. I'm OK when it's printed modern Danish, but I'm struggling with old handwriting + unfamiliar abbreviations + archaic spelling. Bad enough when it's in English, but when you add in a language which I don't understand well, it's bloody hard. The frustrating thing is that I don't actually need translations, it's the initial reading that's screwing me up.
Doing a bit of genealogy, eh? IIRC the Kirkebøger are available on the net, so I guess you read Danish...![]()
Jeg kan godt nok laese danske ogsa....:O)
Det er da ret pudsigt, at der er så mange der kan det!
But we're derailing the thread.![]()