Haha, yes, it was destroyed by an IED device modified from a large-equivalent aviation bomb, so I only used it to show the structure after the armour module fell. As for the composition of the structure inside, I have shown the relevant content and personal speculation in this or another Mekava 4 discussion before, so I will not repeat the description here.
Well then no one can claim that Merkava has poor armor because of this incident, the goal is to increase the in-game values ranging from 300 to 450mm of protection frontally which is not the case in the actual Merkava 4M tank. Internet sources in the form of digital drawings in brochures is not accurate either.
1 Like
I hope drones dont become a major player in war thunder, we already have crazy artillery at lower brs and having to contend with kamikadze drones I hope not!
Tbh merkava is pretty safe from drones compare to other mbts cuz the 200mm roof armor
Well its the overall drone game play I am afraid of, not the protection might cause real problems for tanks in general.
2 Likes
I know this topic is primarily focused on armour, but it’s probably the best place to ask as other Merk players are here.
Have any of you fellas noticed that the Trophy just… consistently fails to work? Like just straight up not even engaging ?
I am often dying to ATGM’s, everything from TOW’s to Kornets to Vikhrs, and in these instances, the APS doesn’t even ‘fire’. It makes no attempt to intercept - even when the projectile is very much in its engagement zone.
I genuinely can’t recall the last time it successfully intercepted anything. Even in the rare instances I do catch it ‘firing’, it never actually stops the incoming projectile, it will still hit and often fatally.
Am I just experiencing confirmation bias or is it like this for you guys too?
2 Likes
It’s the same for us. Every time I get an ATGM it tells me there’s something 1 millisecond before it impacts also. Last time I got hit by a Vikhr, it got my tracks, my breach, my barrel, and a crewmate, the APS technically fired. I don’t know if that’s how it works in real life, but I hope it isn’t because it’d basically be the most useless thing I’ve ever seen (having in account that in battle, if the tank is disabled there’s not much to do). I usually have to directly point the dispenser directly to the helicopter for it to do something (still breaks my track and gun). So yeah, do not trust it at the slightest. I have to say that beam riding missiles are a complete beast as they go straight to the target from the start (they have the laser receptor behind) so putting smoke without moving is not the most reliable thing (with IOG beam riding missiles), it’s better to try to take cover (it’s nightmarish in desert/snowy maps as sometimes there isn’t a rock in a 500 meter radius). Only way to avoid them is timing your smoke at making the missile explode before impact, it works with KH-38s too, it will just disable the whole tank quite literally.
There are more issues with it IRL, but reaction speed isn’t actually the main thing. The Trophy is able to open and close on the Merkava 4, the prior would technically have a much faster response time, but in practice it is often closed since in security maintenance the system is too prone to damage, and also might injure civilians/friendly. The Trophy has been seen to fail against Kornet, but mostly they fail to react against sub 100m rockets.
1 Like
bug reported it, i never get traction on my bug reports, might be shadowbanned :)
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/oXFO5keSTLiE
Yea its bugged u can test it in the test drive its clearly not working
1 Like
That is not true just in the last war it proves to be very effective
And u can ask every merkava operator on that (ofc its not 100% but still)
U are right about the reaction time tho in fact my friend that is a merkava gunner said to me that it sometimes trying to intercept the round they shooting
It is far from that, if u account that every person speaking likely has ‘survived’ and the ones who didn’t, well can’t speak. I have seen more than a dozen footages and most cases when Merkava was hit, it was the trophy reacting late or not at all. It is effective, not doubting its effectiveness, but in such close quatre fights (within 100m), it is almost impossible for any existing APS to intercept, and the trophy is no exception.
They have been pushing hardware and software to try to get it to be good at those ranges. There or not, hard to say.
The trophy system in real life works well against atgms but against vikhrs or missiles coming from planes and other helicopters the angle of attack is different and I highly doubt that it will save you from those kinda threats. Also from systems such as javelins it might not work all the time. In general trophy is a very good system but it does not guarantee 100% success rate especially from threats coming from above.
But you should be intercepting atgms launched from ground vehicles coming straight at you. Otherwise might be due to pact loss in game or other factors.
I have seen some of those footages as well, but that is where the armor comes into play. It is higher than that in game but not impenetrable. There is no tank that can save you from multiple threats coming from different angels. No tank can guarantee 1000mm of protection 360 degrees all round protection.
As you have correctly pointed out tank gets hit but not always destroyed , same as a lot of T-72(90, bvm etc.) also get hit disabled and only some rouge drone dumps a projectile detonating the ammo inside the autoloader.
Are the sides of the hull gonna stay ~480mm forever? Did anybody notice it too? How can ~400mm of NERA & 50mm of RHA(hull’s base armor) provide 480mm? Its got x1.075 CE modifier to NERA in that case when it should be x1.7 😭
I mean against atgms like kornets
Also even if the aps doesnt work just rpg doesnt do much
Israel negative bias
Side armor has more protection than front armor
It’s really tragic