09.10.2023, Moscow.
In the war that is now unfolding in the Middle East, tanks, strange as it may seem, have again played their role, but this time tragic. Aleksey Kulaev, a Rossa Primavera News Agency‘s expert, expressed his opinion on the role of tanks in the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023.
Looking at the videos shot by the attacking Hamas fighters, one can see that Israeli tanks were the first target when attacking military bases. Merkava are heavy, powerful, perfectly armed and protected armored monsters, which under certain conditions, could have buried any attack by light infantry or special forces. But they couldn’t.
Israeli tanks were eliminated at the earliest stage. Moreover, to destroy them, it was not necessary to use expensive and complex systems. Everything was done by an old Soviet RPG-7 grenade launcher and a cheap Chinese quadrocopter with an anti-tank hand grenade.
As I wrote earlier, “Russia’s special military operation was the event where FPV drones were first deployed in full swing. Cheap, mass-produced, relatively powerful devices now make it possible to turn a multi-million dollar tank into garbage by spending as little as $1000.”
In this respect, Israel is still lucky that its adversary has not yet developed FPV drones capable of flying into the ajar hatch on a tank’s turret in large numbers. So far, there have only been quadcopters capable of dropping a grenade from above.
The absence of “anti-drone” canopies on Merkava tanks raises questions. At least they would have saved the vehicles from dropping ammunition on the roof, which destroyed one of the Israeli tanks.
Another issue concerns the Trophy active protection system (APS), which can shoot down incoming shells, ATGM rockets and hand grenade launchers, a system of which the Israeli tankers were particularly proud. The system was either deactivated or could not be triggered by flying drops, which again raises the question of its usefulness in a real combat situation.
Another point that all the military experts pointed out was the gathering of Israeli infantry into a large group when “mopping up” captured settlements and the deployment of a large number of self-propelled howitzers, support vehicles and shells nearby when shelling Hamas positions. The FPV showed that any gathered group of military personnel or vehicles would be hit immediately. Any FPV drone operator would have destroyed all those infantry down in 10 minutes and made a nice bonfire out of the self-propelled howitzers.
What is happening now in Israel is quite likely to be the beginning of a bloody war, which will not end in a few days, which means that weapons and modern methods of warfare will certainly flow into the conflict zone.
Israel will have to learn to fight again. Such lessons are very expensive, and they are paid for in blood.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
