Merkava and Namer Anomely

Dev Server "Line of Contact" General Discussion - Dev Server
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Good evening fellow tank enthusiasts. I would like to talk to you about a tank I really like - the Merkava, which I am a crew member of in real life (NO, I will NOT be leaking here any information that’s classified).
We all know how criminally misrepresented the Merkava tank series is in War Thunder; the incorrect armor values are the worst part of this problem - a tank that is known for it’s amazing over-all protection and insane survivability, designed by the genius of the people at Mantak (the Israeli tank design administration), is seen in War Thunder as barely an APC with a gun that can be frontally penetrated by the weakest of projectiles available.
As a tank designed mostly to keep the crew safe, the Merkava prioritizes protection of the crew above all. That is the reason why it’s engine is located in the front of the hull; in the unlikely case of penetration, the fragments would destroy the mobility compartment and not harm the crew. The engine + transmission + radiators block was specifically designed to be as thick, heavy and dense as possible, so it would reduce spalling rather than increase it (unlike WT’s unrealistic current state).
The hull armor? Visibly, from unclassified images on the internet, is thicker than 200 mm in physical thickness. That grants us a line-of-sight thickness of ~725.591 mm, according to the formula of [(physical thickness) divided by (cosinus (angle to the vertical plane))] - since the constructional angle of the upper front plate of the Merkava Mk.4 is 74 degrees to the vertical plane. Even if you multiply that number by a composite multiplier of 0.9, you still get ~653.032 mm - enough to defend against DM53. Is there any problem with this simple logic?

Now, with Gaijin adding in yet ANOTHER Merkava at an exaggerated BR, can we all call them to just cut the stupid ignorance and buff Merkava armor? I want to know wether they are going to add the BMPT Terminator with proper armor, because they definately didn’t do so with the Namer.

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Can you show said images that show the insane thickness of the composite?
If so, I may have to words to say about it

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This plate is also explosive, which should make it even stronger than the Soviet ERA-covered plates. Newer composite and Israel has access to Russian ERA, yet uses their own explosive armor. In-game, it’s worse than Russian ERA.

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Is 200 mm insane? It’s just the physical thickness of the UFP. Calculate the LOS thickness using a simple geometric formula, and you get it. For instance, the LOS thickness of T-34 UFP is 90 mm: [(45 mm physical thickness)/(cos(60 degrees constructional angle)) = 90 mm LOS thickness]. Look at images, you would see that the armor above the engine is at least 20 cm thick.

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The length of a Mk.4 hull is roughly 7.60 meters. The length of the hull in the image is roughly 15 cm, the width of the area marked with an arrow in the image is roughly 0.5 cm. Divide 0.5 by 15, multiply by 7.60, multiply by 1000, you get a value of roughly 250 mm.

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Everything irl suggests that the Mk4’s SLERA should perform like giant sloped relikt that can defeat multiple penetrating hits before degrading

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I wouldn’t say anything about Merkava’s real armor values if I were you. Only calculate basic RHA potential. Everything in that context is utterly classified.

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Assumptions are king for armour determination in this game, and I’d just like my Mk4s to be as good as possible

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As good as possible? In an event that was unclassified by the IDF, the Mk.4A tank of Ephraim Daparin, now official spokesman of the IDF, was hit in Lebanon, 2006 by 5 Kornet ATGMs and survived with no penetration. Daparin was the only crew member harmed, and it was only due to his head hitting the roof of the turret due to the shockwave created by the impact.

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