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Tank Attack Will Force Israel To Rethink Tactics
Summary
For the second time in a month, Palestinian militants have blown
up an Israeli Merkava battle tank in the Gaza Strip, killing
three soldiers. The increasingly sophisticated Palestinian
assaults will force Israel to review its battlefield tactics and
its reliance on its heretofore cornerstone weapon system.
Analysis
Three Israeli soldiers were killed March 14 when the Merkava
battle tank they were in drove over a landmine buried on the
Karni-Netzarim road in the Gaza Strip. The tank was escorting a
civilian convoy when Palestinian militants hidden in a nearby
mosque detonated the 110-pound charge, the Jerusalem Post
reported.
The attack is the second successful strike by Palestinian
militants against the 60-ton battle tank within the past month.
This will likely convince Israel of the need to adapt to the
Palestinians' new shift to guerrilla tactics and will lead the
Israeli military to re-evaluate its reliance on the Merkava, its
main battle tank.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) relies heavily on the tank as the
front line of defense for ground forces entering areas under
fire. It is also used as a key component for cavalry deployments,
rescuing civilians under attack and escorting both civilian and
military convoys through hostile territory, which right now is
the entire Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The tank serves as a cornerstone weapon system because of the
many capabilities it brings to the table. Most important, the
Merkava can strike moving targets while it is also moving. Its
120-mm smoothbore gun, fitted with a thermal sleeve, serves as
the main armament, and its 60-mm mortar capability packs enough
firepower to blow down walls and anything else that blocks the
way of advancing forces.
The modular armor, which covers both the turret and the hull,
provides a high degree of protection to the tank crew and allows
military forces to penetrate further into hostile areas than
lighter armored personnel carriers (APCs).
The tank allows the IDF to identify targets more than a kilometer
away and quickly relay that information to engaging forces. It
also serves as a deterrent force since its firepower and armor
discourage engagement by lightly armed Palestinian militants.
However, now that the Palestinians have developed a successful
tactic for attacking the tank, Israel will need to rethink its
battlefield strategy. Israel's options include reformulating its
tactical hierarchy to rely more on APCs, which would allow for
greater mobility and reduce the value of targets presented to the
Palestinians. Unlike the massive, lumbering tanks, APCs are
small, have greater speed and can move through alleys and roads
closed to tank passage. They are also less expensive than the $3
million Merkava tanks.
But relying more on APCs will make the Israeli military
increasingly vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenade (RPG)
attacks. This in turn raises the question of how capable the
Palestinians are in launching such assaults. Though Palestinian
militants are not known to use RPGs regularly, they did
reportedly fire two grenades at a tank in Ramallah in early
January. Several reports from Israeli sources list a handful of
RPGs among Palestinian hardware.
Moving to APCs will also require greater air support for ground
forces. This would come from attack helicopters and strike
fighters like the F-16. In its helicopter arsenal, Israel has 21
AU-1Gs, 36 AH-1Fs, 30 Hughes 500MDs and 42 AH-64As. But relying
on air power is costly, and even though it is much more difficult
to strike aircraft with RPGs, they too are vulnerable to such
attacks.
Since the Palestinians have limited RPG- and anti-aircraft
capabilities at the moment, the issue arises of where could they
acquire them should the IDF shift to greater reliance upon
mobility and air power. Other groups in the region like Hezbollah
do have RPG and anti-tank hardware.
Israel wants to downplay the recent tank attacks. 'Such an
explosive charge would blow up any tank in the world; we have to
accept that these things will happen, ' said IDF Col. Meir Pail.
'It's a small victory for the Palestinians, but it does not
question the performance of our tanks in battle,' Agence France-
Press reported.
Despite the military's statements, the reality of the situation
dictates that the IDF must rethink its reliance on the Merkava.
It cannot tolerate a situation wherein the tank is subject to a
proven threat and no steps have been taken to counter it.
strafor.com
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