oren_m

It's not a real drone, i've seen it, it's an Iranian radio controlled small drone, it's more like something you'll get for christmass, it's really lousy, it's imaging equiptmant is kinda like an expencive home video camera. The drone's main use is not surveillance, but propaganda. As for Syria's UAVs, i would'nt worry about them, it's a shme i cant tell you why, anyway, thrust me. Oren_m

El_operative, i'll try to do this one without politics, I belive that Hizballa (Hizble=party, Alla=god) will definetly drag israel to with in lebanon and most likly in syria also. The last full scale war Israel had, was in 1982 in lebanon, in which, i'll remind you, Beirut fell to the IDF in few weeks after the border crossing, the result of the war was PLO being kicked out to Tunisia, altought Hizballa took it's place it was a sucsess. Due to the long time that Israel was'nt in a full scale war, the arab side, mostly Hizballa, tend to underastamate IDF's capabilitys against terror, which i can understand some how. What they dont know, and neither of anyone in this forum, are Israel's real capabilitys, which are unimagineable, and i really mean that, and i'm not talking nuclear options. Besides that, i think that the only ones who can prevent war in the next few year are the Lebenes, their country is now in a financial grouth not seen since the civil war broke in the 70's, so they have the most to lose from such a war. Happy hanuka, Oren_m

Yes it was AT-3 SAGGER. But during this event the laser detection system in the tank told us that we are being "lased" by someone, so i guess they had there something a little more advanced than the AT-3.

Actually no, AKD.

Unless WWIII will start! Did you read Nosterdamus's prophecys? If not let me tell a little story... I have read the prophecys about 7 years ago, one of the last chepters of the book talks about the 3'rd world war, he describes the war as a christian-muslim war that will start with a muslim invasion to europe, according to nosterdamus the war will last for many year (no number given). Well, you cant take it as a real story, but you cant ignore how relevant is sounds... I really advise you to read it, it's really interesting and it's also written in forms of songs, so if you like apoclyps combained with poetry you're inveted to read it. Oren_m

I did'nt say that the IDF will fight along with the US army, all i'm saying is that the US army will use israel as a base for it's invading troops, just like they used Saudi-arabia or Kueit.

Say, what are the reasones for the US army to not use Israel as it's logistical base, i mean, it's a whole lots safer than Iraq and much more closer to Damescus, moreover, the US army could use the already existing logistical sources of the IDF. I know it's highly unlikely to happen, but would'nt it be much easier for them? Oren_m

John, you have just reminded me someting. I think it was 5 years ago, during combat manuvering training, my batllion moved near the Syrian border and we positioned our selfs in war position in order to look at what we would see from there in a real war, suddenly, a large number of Syrian soldiers came out of the alleged houses near the border, we maneged to see that they are all AT units, i think they had AT-4 SAGER missiles. Anyhow, their whole "we have secret units near the border" thing exposed, i guess their commaders did'nt really liked that. So, according to this i would presume that they are thinking about this whole idea of urban fighting for a while...

Hey everyone! I've been away from this thread for a while, and i have a reason, my reserve unit went out for training. So, why i'm telling you this? During training we had some briefings about the Syrian army and the whole US-Syrian situation, the buttom line is that the Syrian army is building "regular iregular" fighting units to fight the US forces in cities, moreover, the syrian goverment has increased funds for villeges and towns which wish to build new buildings. Their strategy is to increase the urban areas between Damescus and the iraqi border and israel. Oren_m

Steve, Satyr! I guess both of you have something in what you say about none-conventional fighting against the Syrian army, but remember this, in order to do so, the Syrian army will need high moral and some will to fight. Look back into history, in the israeli-arab wars in 1967 and 1973, after short periods of fighting, 3 days in 67' and 2 weeks in 73', the syrian army broke and de-moralized, which led to thousands of soldiers surrendering. I belive that an american operation in Syria would be much more overwhelming than the operation in the israeli-arab wars. Nevertheless, dont forget that most of the fighting in Iraq and Afganistan is againt Al-qaida related forces and not against armys, i dont say that there is no Al-qaida forces in syria, but they are far from iran which funds and arm them hevily, and i did'nt even mentioned the Lebenese side here, as you know, they are now an officiel enemy of syria, and you cant tell what will happen during a war in syria. So, the game has much potential and i'm really looking forward it! Oren_m

I'll say it again, it is not a study, these are hard cold facts i'm giving here...

Satyr.... Are you being cynical? Because if so, i must say that all the things i wrote are true and credible, i cannot actually tell you the actual sources of this information, but i know it from my military serviec in the armored core of the IDF. Oren_m

The Syrian forces has some amount of Kornet(AT-14) and the Milan ATGMS's, but they dont have them in large numbers. The units which are using these ATGM's are special commando units only, most of these units are mounted on Mi-8 helicopters. These commando units are under-trained and under-equiped, the standarts for joining in to theses units is 10 years in school, which makes the manpower's skills very poor. In general, the syrian commando is infirior to any US army unit, so, imageine how is their army like.... Oren_m

I served 3 years in the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces), as a gunner in the Merkava Mk.2B MBT, i took part in Anti-terrorist operations during 2 and a half years out of the 3. The operations i took part in, took place in: Gaza strip ----------- Central sector(Kissufim road, Dir-el-balah) Northern sector(Beit hanun, Beit lahiya) West bank ---------- Hebron and the villeges in it's area. Tul karem and the villeges in it's area. Jenin and the whole sector around it. I served between the years 2000-2003. Oren_m

Really why? Do you think it's thanks to the fact that we are all pro's? Or we are so ignorant that we dont have questions to ask?! Ha?!

A track repairing time can take between 30 minutes to 1 day! It's all dependes on how bad the track is demaged, and how is the crew is skilled.

Come and get me!!!!! Muha ha ha ha ha ha (evil laughter)

Boomer, i could tell you, but then i'll have to kill you!! Seriously, the Mk.4 has highly classefied systems and data, the loading time is one of them.

Gunnersman, the Merkava Mk.4 has a semi-automatic loading system, you still have the loader, but he does'nt lift the shells, the carousel hand him the shell and all he has to do is load it into the gun.

I dont agree with that, but...whatever... How about arguments for having the autoloader?

The autoloader has many disadvanteges, first of all it's a mechanic loading system, therefore, it could have meltfunctions, besides, it could suffer a critical demage during combat, and you'll have no one to load shells. And that was what i ment when i sayed that the T-72 is and was infirior from the western MBT's

Probably..... Dont forget that the T-72 is a tank that was made during the 1970's, and even than it was'nt considered to be a very good tank. And another thing, the T-72 has no loader, it has insted a fully automatic loading system.

The loading time is really depeneds on the loader's training. The merkava's avarage loading time is about 3-6 seconeds, just like the M1A1 Abrams. The horrible loading time of the T-72 makes it highly infirior against modern western MBT's.

Here are some more pictures, and this time you can actually see me!! yes! Here you can see what happens when you get bored, we found a sofa on the dune behinde us, and it was found to be very functional, as you can see, it's hard to see but i'm sitting on the right side, next to me is the driver and the loader. And here you can see me! This is in the northern part of israel, on the "Green line" near the palestinian town of Jenin. a very nice area, as you can see.

What?! It's a weahter post now?! STOP IT!