Chapter 10 Armored Main Force

Within four hours, the "Givati" Brigade launched three attacks, and in the third attack, it broke through the outer defense line of the fifth stop, attacked the city, and launched street battles with the Egyptian army. Only at about 2:30 in the morning, Egyptian long-range artillery began artillery support, focusing on shelling the logistics support forces of the Israeli army and the reserve team following behind. The "Givati" Brigade had to temporarily retreat.

At that time, all Chinese military advisers were behind the front line.

Because early warning aircraft can only provide the movement of the troops of both sides of Egypt and Israel and cannot detect battles in the urban area, there is not much battlefield information available.

It was not until around four o'clock in the morning that Mu Haoyang received reconnaissance information from the Air Force.

The battle was extremely cruel. The Egyptian army used buildings in the town to build anti-tank positions. Israel lost at least 38 main battle tanks and nearly 40 armored combat vehicles, with more than 600 casualties, and the Egyptian army suffered even more casualties.

Subsequently, Mu Haoyang received news from the military advisory group.

During the battle around the early morning..., the 14th Infantry Division seized a relatively complete "Mekava 6" main battle tank, which was trying to transport it to the west bank of the canal. After the representatives of the military advisory team found the door, the Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Army had agreed to send the tank to China.

If everything goes well, twenty hours later, this "Mekava 6" main battle tank will arrive in Beijing.

Li Mingyang has contacted three domestic tank manufacturers and two ammunition manufacturers to send engineers to prepare to study Israel's most advanced main battle tanks.

In a sense, the "Mekawa 6" main battle tank is the crystallization of Israel's defense industry.

In 2026, when the "Mekava 6" model was successfully developed, Israel claimed that it was a typical representative of the fourth-generation main battle tank and had combat performance farther than the third-generation main battle tank. However, in the following years, the glorious image of the "Mekava 6" model was repeatedly tested, especially in the South Lebanon military conflict in 2032, three "Mekava 6" models were destroyed by Hezbollah militants with an old RPG-20 bazooka, and one was ired, that is, an improvised explosive device, and it was broken.

As for whether the "Mekava 6" model is the fourth-generation main battle tank, there has been huge controversy.

The most important thing is whether the armor used by the "Mekava 6" meets the standards of the fourth main battle tank, that is, the fourth-generation composite armor with a piezoelectric induction partition. You should know that among the main performance indicators of the fourth-generation main battle tank, this composite armor is indispensable. The recognized fourth-generation main battle tanks, such as China's Type 24, Germany's "Leopard 3", the United States' M27a1, the United Kingdom's "Challenger 4", and Russia's 20 all use this composite armor, which raises the comprehensive protection capability to a whole new level. According to the official information revealed by Israel and the information obtained from other channels, the "Mekava 6" still uses the third-generation composite armor. Israel has not developed a piezoelectric induction partition, so it is impossible to produce the fourth-generation composite armor.

This problem is also reflected in the design of the "Mekava 6" type.

On the main battle tank of the "Mekava 5" type, Israel changed the design method of the front-four generation "Mekava", placed the power system at the rear, canceled the crew compartment, and returned to the traditional design route, no longer being unique. According to reliable information, the "Mekava 5" type adopts the rear power compartment layout, mainly because Israel has made major breakthroughs in the third-generation composite armor technology, and no longer needs to use the front power compartment to enhance the front defense strength. Thick composite armor is enough.

This is a key improvement and has laid the foundation for the success of the "Mekava 5" model.

It can be said that the "Mekava 5" type is a very successful main battle tank, and it also broke a record, that is, 180 vehicles were exported to India in 2027. Although the number was not large, before that, no matter how magical the Israeli blew it was, there was no export record for the "Mekava" that was swearing.

The problem is that when it comes to the "Mekava 6", Israeli tank designers abandoned the design that had been successful on the "Mekava 5" type and once again set the power plant forward. Although Israel repeatedly claimed that the protection capability of the "Mekava 6" type is no worse than that of any fourth-generation main battle tank, such an abnormal design method has proved that Israeli tank designers do not trust the "Mekava 6" armor enough.

You know, when designing tanks, Israel has always put personnel survivability first.

If the armor is not strong enough, then placing the power system forward is equivalent to providing an additional protective barrier for the occupants and enhancing the protection capabilities of the occupants.

During several local conflicts, the design concept of the "Mekava 6" type has been proved.

For example, in the South Lebanon conflict in 2032, only one of the four "Mekawa 6" destroyed completely lost its repair value, and only the crew of the tank was killed. All three destroyed by the RPG-20 could be repaired, and none of the crew was killed.

Unfortunately, low-intensity local conflicts cannot prove anything at all.

In large-scale wars, the battlefield repair capabilities of armored forces are definitely very limited, and the front of the power unit is equivalent to treating the heart of the tank as a shield. Even if the crew is protected, it is difficult to ensure that the battle continues after being shot, and even loses its ability to move.

The battle from the night of the 20th to the early morning of the 21st just illustrates this issue.

According to information provided by the Egyptian military, at least half of the more than 30 "Mekava 6" destroyed were armored, causing the power system to be paralyzed, thus losing its ability to move, and then destroyed by infantry anti-tank weapons. The seized one is no exception. If the "Mekava 6" adopts the "Mekava 5" design plan, it will definitely not be so bad, and at least some of them can evacuate from the battlefield.

The main reason why Israeli designers go back to the old path is that their armor technology is not up to standard.

Without the fourth-generation composite armor, if the power device is used, and the defense strength of the front armor reaches the fourth-generation standard, the total combat weight of the "Mekava 6" type is likely to exceed 70 tons. When the 1,500 horsepower motor is still used, the maneuverability can be imagined. Although the Israeli Army does not care much about the maneuverability of the tank, it will definitely not tolerate the 70 tons of behemoth. In this way, the designer can only settle for the second best and adopt the power device front plan to offset some armor, and control the total combat weight to within 64 tons, ensuring that the maneuverability is not too bad when using the "Mekava 5" type power system.

In fact, the first four generations of "Mekava" also had similar problems, namely, the armor technology was not up to standard, which led to designers having to front-end the power unit. If there is enough advanced armor, there is no need to do so, and the "Mekava 5" model just illustrates this problem.

Of course, in addition to armor, the "Mekava 6" model is still advanced enough in other aspects.

For example, its 140mm electrothermal chemical smoothbore gun is the standard equipment of the fourth generation of the main battle tank in the West. Its technology originated from Germany and is basically no different from the tank guns of the "Leopard 3", m27a1, and "Challenger 4". It can also use tank ammunition from Western countries.

The most eye-catching thing about the "Mekava 6" type is its active defense system.

Israel once claimed that the "Mekawa 6" type active defense system can deal with kinetic energy armor-piercing bombs with a magnitude of about 1,400 meters per second, which is more than twice as advanced than Russia's "Arena", and is the world's first active defense system that can protect kinetic energy armor-piercing bombs.

Actual combat proves that its actual effect is far from so ideal.

On the battlefield of the fifth stop, one-third of the "Mekava 6" passive energy bombs pierced through the vehicle body and turret forward armor, and its active defense system had no effect at all.

In addition, the "Mekawa 6" type electronic equipment is also advanced enough, and it is the "culprit" with a unit price of up to 22 million US dollars. In this expensive tank, electronic equipment accounts for 60% of the cost, and Israel's electronic industry is already very advanced.

For China, the most valuable thing in the "Mekava 6" model is electronic equipment.

The problem is that the "Mekawa 6" seized by the Egyptian army has been damaged, and Israeli tank soldiers will definitely destroy the most critical electronic equipment when abandoning the tank.

Obviously, even if it is shipped back, it may not be of much use value.

The biggest benefit for Chinese tank engineers is probably to use this tank to test whether the domestic armor-piercing bombs have enough power.

Of course, this is also a bit redundant, because the battle at the fifth stop has shown that the armor-piercing bombs produced by China will definitely be able to penetrate the frontal armor of Israel's most advanced main battle tanks.

These are not things that Mu Haoyang cares about.

After the attack was frustrated, the Israeli legion did not retreat, but regrouped to prepare for the attack after dawn.

According to the battlefield information returned by the early warning aircraft, at that time, at least five brigades were preparing to enter the battle near the fifth stop. Combined with the information provided by the Egyptian military, in addition to the Eighth Armored Brigade and the Second Infantry Brigade, there were also three armored brigades of the Fourteenth, 401 and 6000. In the rear, the Israeli army gathered a total of five armored brigades, the 460th, 164th, 217th, 247th and 43th. These armored brigades, without exception, participated in the Fourth Middle East War, and all fought in the direction of the Sinai Peninsula.

From this deployment, it can be seen that the Israeli Army is determined to win the fifth stop.

However, increasing troops may not necessarily solve the problem.

On the west bank of the canal, the Third Egyptian Army Group had already assembled, and even the Third Tank Division had arrived early at around 4 a.m. There is no doubt that the Egyptian Army will defend the fifth stop and it is very likely to counterattack when the Israeli Army's offense reaches its peak.
Chapter completed!