1. The Tank has become a " Death Trap "
Abdel Karim Salim , |
Jerusalem |
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(04.25.14) |
The pictures depict the American-made M-60 Patton main battle tank
( MBT ) which was the successor to the US-built M-48 Patton tank .The modern American-made tank is now the M-1 Abrams .
All in all the tank as a heavily-armored fighting vehicle seems to have become already much costly yet quite obsolete and hardly useful or needed in modern combat . Not even the modern Israeli-made Merkava 4 tank seems to be any better replacement . The introduction of efficient anti-tank missiles has greatly reduced the value of the tank as attested by the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the Second Lebanon War of 2006 where in both cases scores of IDF tanks got destroyed beyond repair by Soviet/Russian-made " Sagger " and " Koronet " and " Metis " anti-tank missiles .
Soviet Russia seemed to have understood that point from the very beginning and no wonder their last heavy tanks were the " Stalin MK III " and the " T-10 " both of which were long phased out of service and succeeded by considerably-lighter medium tanks such as the " T-55 " ,
" T-62 " , T-72 " , and the latest
" T- 90 " tanks .
Lastly , generally speaking, Western-made tanks , including the Israeli
" Merkava " , are quite heavier and more expensive than Russian-made tanks , and , ironically , seem to be a certain death trap for the crew .
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