He was one of the greats who actually cared about his country which sadly there are to few of anymore but 86 is a decent age. His legacy though will live on forever through the generations of tank crews that survived wars to go on and have families because his tank was designed with crew protection as a priority. The country owes Israel Tal a debt of gratitude.

My heart felt condolences to Israel Tal's family. He will be missed and as one tanker I appreciate all he has done for the tank corps, from the design of the Merkerva to the traditions he instilled in the corps. Thank you for your serves.

Isnt that th tank that hizbullah flipped on its back..

reading propaganda again ... you butt needs to get educated before you make stupid remarks. Now go hide in a hospital or UN complex as you cowards always do.

While you may read many false stories about this tank, it performed well in the 2006 war in Lebanon. The IDF deployed several hundred tanks, about 10% took hits, 18 of the tanks were seriously damaged but only 5-6 of the tank were penetrated. Only 2 tanks were totally destroyed, those destroy were destroyed by massive IED's (over 200lb charges), not rockets. Put in context, of the over three hundred tanks deployed less than 1% (2 tanks) were totally destroyed. Overall a very good performance by the tank. Of course the Arabs have their fantasy of what was destroyed, but that all it is, fantasy. The numbers I've listed above were the real totals.

No tank, plane, ship or any other platform is immune and can be defeated at times but as far as tanks go Merkava is one of the best protected in the world and its one tanks crews worldwide like because it was built with their protection as the priority.

I realize that Israel has lost a brave soldier dedicated to developing the Israel Defense Forces Israel is unique the only Jewish home land us poor Jews have I live in America believe me life here is hard at times impossible luckily the world is not what it was like in 1935 still they do not exactly show me any respect luckily they do not physicialy atack me probably because they want a lot of money to do it but this Israeli knows life like that he was a real Jew he knew 1935 1944 1947 1948 he knows Israel we lost a brave soldier a Jew dedicated to the IDF RIGHT ??? Thank You... M. S.

God speed Aluf Tal, you were a credit to your family, your parents and your people. Just wish there were more like you in this world. A little tribute to your 'baby' can be found at MXCD-ROMOS. Shalom