Posted by
Dawnsblood on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 6:43:59 PM
At least that
appears to be the lesson learned in the Israel/Hezbollah throwdown last summer.
The
Israelis, as they have in all past wars, collected detailed information on each
tank that was hit by enemy fire. Israel won't, for obvious reasons, release all
this information. But they have provided some data. There were "several
hundred" Merkavas sent into southern Lebanon in 2006. Of those, ten percent
were hit by enemy fire (including mines and roadside bombs). Merkava faced
modern anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) for the first time in 2006. Only 18
tanks were seriously damaged, and only a third of those were from several
hundred ATGMs fired by Hizbollah. Only two of the 18 heavily damaged tanks were
destroyed, and both of those were damaged by roadside bombs. In those two
cases, the tank was over the bomb when it was detonated.