Israeli army investigating: What disrupts the Merkava tank engine?

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The "Israeli" military is investigating the defect affecting the engines of the Merkava tanks. This defect issue is not new, in fact, it was revealed shortly after the staffing of the tank in the "Israeli" army in 2003. A malfunction in the system of throttles caused the tank to stop moving after 250-200 hours of work, thus the engine was removed and taken away to be repaired. A former senior officer in the armored corps admitted that during the first years of operation, the tanks' problem was classified as "serious". According to him, they had to keep a lot of tanks without engines and wait for their repairing to end. Recently, and as the data given to watchdog Harare showed, this failure will continue to damage the capabilities of these formations, especially the reserve brigade, which was equipped about two years ago with this mighty tank.

In addition, as a result of the failures, the military doesn't have sufficient quantities of tank engines to use in case of emergency. In the mainland arm they are well aware of the ever-increasing gaps accompanied by the increasing size of Merkava 4 tanks. Its data were provided to the Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, and his deputy, Major General Yair Neve. Each engine will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to be repaired, which means that they require a huge budget, thus additional tanks cannot be purchased for the cases of emergency.

Sources familiar with the case claim that the defect, which was almost discovered in 2003 is still preoccupying the "Israeli" army and the Ministry of Defense until these days. "It is not possible not to find a solution to this, it will harm the capabilities of an important brigade," one of the sources added. "This will cost us a lot of money, so we must make sure that we were already doing what should be done so that during war we won't be suffering from a shortage in these tanks."

In the scope of the investigation prepared by the "Israeli" military observer, a team of reserve officers specialized in this domain was formed. After it was revealed that not only the army units are being monitored, but also different committees in the Department of "Defense" that are responsible for the project, the team of officers was authorized to monitor the security establishment in full. According to various estimates, the monitoring process will seemingly reveal a series of defects in the decision-making process related to the follow-up of buying the engine from the German company and the recommendation on a new mechanism to address the issue.

The spokesman of the "Israeli" army said, "At the beginning stage of manufacturing the Merkava 4, nine years ago, simple defects were found in the engines. The issue has been solved few years ago, and the majority of the manufactured Merkavas were fixed. At this time, a limited number of engines (which were made in the beginning) are being repaired. The "Israeli" army continues to process the formation of armored tanks Merkava4 without affecting the plan of equipments and the building of a multi-year power. "

The Ministry of "Defense" announced, "The new engines that were purchased certainly suit the Merkava 4. All the enhancements are being added to these engines. We do not buy faulty engines. Contrary to the claim, the brigade mentioned in your review is convenient to operate. The "Israeli" army possesses the appropriate number of engines to implement the routine and emergency plan. The procurement process that we launched earlier is designed to further in strengthen the Merkava 4 in the future."

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