I thus suggest that Gaijin would remove most antennas on the Merkava Mk.4 tanks. They always use two in real life, not 7 or 5, and the huge antennas make it extremley annoying to play and spoil your vision.
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I completely agree.
In short - please change this ludicrous amount of antennas. It is non realistic and unbalanced.
As an ex merkava commander for the last 20 years, serving on all merkava varients,I have never seen a Merkava, nor any Israeli tank with more than 3 radio antennas, and that’s on a Brigade commander tank. There won’t even be a place to put more than 3 radio receivers inside the turret.
The normal setup would be 2 antenna for the Platoon CO tank - one thick white and one narrow - black - for communication with the Company and receiving the battalion comms. The NCO’s tank would have one white antenna for Company frequency.
Also, unless on a convoy or when staying put, the antennas would be folded back using a string mechanism And that’s especially for not being seen behind cover and in hull down positions.
for urban combat the antennas would be folded forward to avoid hitting power lines and obstacles.
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I’m sure the 7th antenna is to communicate with life outside of earth
IIRC its supposed to be an anti-IED jammer or other ECM system.
My Googlefu was too weak today to find anything but pics of model kits with it shown.
Yes, they are obnoxious.
They can use more than 3, i count 3 thick white, and 2 or 3 narrow antenas on this image, so i wouldnt say that it is unrealistic, it is just unnecessary for the game
Long anthennas like that are not used for ECM. Never did never will.
If you find a picture of a Merkava with 7 long white antennas I will eat me tanker black barret, including the metal crest.
I suggest some salt and pepper with your hat.
https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20190917_R45919_365418f7985d07034fdb55a4790fb5b9f60d457c.html
seriously? is this a tank? does this HMMWV have 7 long radio antennas?
how is that related to the issue? this is not even a serving vehicle in the IDF, it might be some kind of prototype, but it is hardly a fighting vehicle.
I see you didn’t click the educate yourself link.
What are you talking about dude?
Are you suggesting you know more than me on the subject?
How do you suggest I educate myself on that?
How about spending 20 years as a tank commander on these tanks? Would that be enough?
What’s your education?
How rude.
Sigh… Yes I’m pretty sure I know more than you on EW. I spent the back half of MY 20 years in the US Army being a charge of various C3I systems at the battalion level.
Which is what we are talking about here. You know those electronical things that use antennas. So careful about presuming you know more than others.
BTW Found the IRL imagine of Merkava with that antenna array.
https://x.com/Ninja998998/status/1147437903955365888/photo/1
Nice find for sure.
But I count 5 anthennas here.
17ג on the tactical sign means this is the brigade commander tank, presumably carrying both the brigade commander and the artillery coordinatoion officer. The big chair on top of the turret means this tank is used on a course of some sort, probably armor officers course. That’s why it might carry the extra radio devices for which these antennas are used for. 2 for 2way comms and 3 receivers, as par for the amount of space available for radio devices.
All these facts means this is a very unusual sight - there would only be one tank like that in service and for a very limited time. These antennas are not used for EW - for sure.
Congrats on your experience with EW in the US army but this is a post about an Israeli tank, that is only used by Israel, which do not have EW dedicated tanks, not as a regular fighting tank anyway - it would be kept on the back line if exist at all.
I think anyone with some logic would accept that a veteran tank commander in the IDF is more capable as a SME for this issue than an EW expert in the US army.
But the fact that you’re still arguing about it suggest that the Electronic instruments you worked with might radiated your brain for a bit too long.
You’d think someone who perports to be a SME on Israeli vehicles would be aware that Israel uses a lot of American equipment and designs its gear to be compatible.
As for the rest of your post, its all speculative where I have posted evidence, but you insist or remaining condescendingly ignorant. So have fun with that.
Oh man, seriously? What is this has to do with the US equipment the IDF use?
This is an Israeli tank - made by Israel - only operated by Israel - the only component on it which is not Israeli is the engine which is German - manufactured in the US. Thank you very much for the kind contribution.
The radio devices on most merkava tank is an a VRC-120/122 manufactured with license by Israeli.
The one with the extra 2 receivers (122) is shown in this picture:
Current Mk4 Barak uses an Elbit device for what I know. I’m too old so didn’t have a chance to serve on those.
Please dude, stop embarrassing yourself, I respect your knowledge on EW or whatever you did, as a fellow soldier, please stop underestimate mine, it is un-respectful.
I’ll leave you with a picture of my last sortie as a tank commander, 2 years ago, it is an MK3 ramach (they call it B for some reason on WT) which is almost as old as I am.
Notice the lone white antenna, as I am an NCO which only recive a single channel radio device.
Also notice it is folded forward - set for urban warfare in the Gaza strip.
Salute 🫡
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