GarryB wrote:
Putting the engine in the front increases the protection in the sense that putting the ammo and fuel there also increases protection, by putting vulnerable flammable things behind the thickest armour you are giving it the best protection on the vehicle, but you are also placing it where it will most likely get hit repeatedly so if the enemy have weapons powerful to penetrate your frontal armour you are not just letting them penetrate your tank but you are giving them a mobility kill so they can keep hitting your tank until your crew is dead.
Yes, fuel is considered as a quite effective protection layer against a cumulative charges. It gives a really decent disruption, and has a mass equivalent quite close to glass textolite.
Japanese worked for the last 20 years to create honeycomb like structure that will soak fuel, and add an additional layered structure against the cumulative stream. Some rumors suggest they have succeded, and a new tank of theirs has tanks filled with it.
You are missing the whole story. I guess by trying to make a point with Merkava as a tank. Which it is not.
Placing the power pack in front of the hull was the only way to create a vehicle that can fulfill a different tasks they applied to it.
Just take a look at the ammunition load it carries. 60 pcs, some say even 64.
It is an enormous and unexpected load for any other tank, in a whole world.
Weird, isn't it?
A concept of 60 mm build in mortar?
Back in the 70s?
Weird, isn't it?
Back door and a deck inside.
In a tank?
Weird, isn't it?
What it was supposed to be, was a universal support platform with extended autonomy.
The space inside was not used to carry a full ammo load in most of the cases, but ... water.
It was used as a bloody water truck to deliver water to the troops and store it safely.
There are technical break-event points in its construction too. Just get back to the project roots and check how they constructed it. The very first approach was ... a cloned Centurion chassis with a new, cast turret.
Israel in the 70s was not in a position to build an advanced tank. What they did, was matching not the T-72, but ... 62.
Honestly, they didn't have many options to choose.
As the vehicle was a part of overall Jewish propaganda and psyops, that included horrifying the Arabs - they applied a huge chunk of that shitload to the poor Merkava.
A victim of own propaganda