Slung low, sweet Chariot

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 20

Slung low, sweet Chariot

By the Israel correspondent of the “Economist”

Israel has built a new tank which could bring radical

soldiers in its ammunition compartment at the rear. The

changes to armoured warfare. The Israelis call it the Chariot. It began to come off' the production line two months ago, but its official unveiling was held back until just before the General Election — maybe in an attempt to help the Labour Government. The Israelis decided to make their own tank partly because Britain and France stopped supplying them with tanks in 1967, and partly because no Western tank seems right for their needs. Compared with other modern tanks, the Chariot is much longer, fatter, lowerslung and. — if possible — uglier. It is also a combination of tank and armoured personnel carrier. Israel learned in the 1973 war that tanks need infantry to protect them, and the Chariot can carry 10 foot

four-man crew in the main cabin can stand up; other countries’ tank men sit in cramped seats. The Chariot has a Britishdesigned 105 mm rifled gun in a very low turret. The gun is mounted very high on the turret, and the Israelis have devised an ingenious arrangement to allow it to be pointed slightly downwards — to fire downhill, for instance — without the breech sticking out of the top. The Chariot’s armour, manufactured in Israel, is claimed to be in some ways as good as Britain’s revolutionary Chobham armour. However, it is designed primarily to protect the tank against projectiles fired from guns — most of Israel’s losses in 1973 were from hits by other tanks’ guns —• rather than against the “shaped-charge’’ war-

heads fitted to most modem anti-tank missiles.

For added protection the armour plates are set at sharp angles in places, such as just below the turret, where those of other tanks are usually almost horizontal. The main point about the Chariot is not that it will free Israel from dependence on foreign suppliers — many of the most important parts will still have to be obtained from the United States — but that it brings to the Middle East a new kind of fighting vehicle designed for the sort of war it might have to fight. If the Israelis have done their designing right, the Chariot'tank is a major new weapon. And its most striking features — the built-in infantry squad, and the crouching profile which still leaves room for the crew to stand up — could teach other countries some important lessons.