Merkava Mk.2B (USA)

▃Merkava Mk.2B

▃Merkava Mk.2B

USA

VI Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
9.3	9.3	9.3

Class:

Medium tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

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This page is about the American medium tank Merkava Mk.2B (USA). For other version, see Merkava Mk.1 (USA).

Description

The ▃Merkava Siman 2 Bet is a gift rank VI American medium tank with a battle rating of 9.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced during Update 1.95 "Northern Wind" as a reward for Operation F.R.O.S.T.

General info

Survivability and armour

The frontal armour on the Merkava 2B is great and is comparable or better than tanks of similar battle rating, the frontal turret especially. If somebody is hoping to have a shot penetrate through the turret when they are facing a Merkava frontally, there is a very good chance they are out of luck and it will not go through.

This does not mean that the Merkava is frontally invincible, however. The lower front plates are weak; even if they are stronger than the upper ones in pure armour thickness, the effective one is way lower. However, the lower front plate is the weakness of most tanks anyways, so this is to be expected. Also, there are some parts of the front armour that are weak, such as the turret gun mantlet and the area around it, as well as the uppermost part of the frontal upper plate, but being hit there, especially from long distance, is going to be all in the enemy's luck, so worrying about those spots is not necessary all the time.

Where this tank shines though is how it fixes the lower frontal plate issue. This vehicle's secret ace is its position of the engine. It is in front of the tank, covering most of the frontal lower plate and a decent part of the upper one as well. Thus, any hit there will certainly stop the shell coming at it, especially against HESH, HEAT, and sometimes HEAT-FS shells as well. It will also stop most of the shrapnel, protecting the crew even further. However, this also means increased risk of fires and being immobilized, so having the Parts and FPE module will be important to be able to quickly repair the tank and put out fires.

Stick to facing the front armour towards the enemies. The side and rear armour are thin to the point of non-existence, and the rear of the tank has all the ammunition, so anyone able to aim there will get a clean way of a one-shot. That, or they will knock out most, if not all, of the crew, which is still a one-shot.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	60	26	63	1492	1,717	23.68	27.25
Realistic	54	24		852	900	13.52	14.29

Armaments

Main armament

105 mm Sharir					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	62	-8°/+20°	±180°	Two-plane	__._	__._	__._	__._	__._	8.1	__.__	__.__	6.7
Realistic					__._	__._	__._	__._	40.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M111	APFSDS	337	335	330	322	314	306
M152	HEATFS	400	400	400	400	400	400
M156	HESH	127	127	127	127	127	127

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Normalisation at 30° from horizontal	Ricochet
								0%	50%	100%
M111	APFSDS	1,455	3.79	N/A	N/A	N/A	_._°	78°	80°	81°
M152	HEATFS	1,173	10.5	N/A	0.1	1,271	+0.0°	65°	72°	77°
M156	HESH	732	14.85	0.4	0.1	4,306	+0.0°	73°	77°	80°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
M416	730	11.4	20	5	25	50

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
62	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__

Optics

Merkava Mk.2B (USA) Optics
	Default magnification	Maximum magnification
Main Gun optics	X7.2	X8.0
Comparable optics	___

Machine guns

12.7 mm M2HB
Mount	Capacity (Belt capacity)	Rate of fire (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
Coaxial	900 (200)	576	N/A	N/A

7.62 mm FN MAG 60-40
Mount	Capacity (Belt capacity)	Rate of fire (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
Coaxial	5,950 (200)	600	N/A	N/A
Commander's cupola	1,750 (200)	600	-10°/+50°	±120°
Loader's cupola	1,750 (200)	600	-10°/+50°	±120°

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Armour is composed of multiple layers, giving it a good protection against HESH, HEAT and some ATGMs
• Stock HEATFS round works well overall
• Has access to a thermal sight
• Good mobility once spaded. Can take the capture zones with lighter vehicles.
• Good gun with effective choices of ammo.
• Engine in the front gives some extra protection to the crew.
• Low silhouette, excellent for hull-down position
• Can't be hull broken.
• Very good gun stabilization
• Three extra machine guns on the roof to deal with lightly armoured vehicles, helicopters and planes. (2 x 7.62 mm + 1 x 12.7 mm)
• Starts with stock smoke launcher, even better when modifications are purchased
• Potent APFSDS shell, offering more penetration than the one on the XM-1

Cons:

• Not premium (modules must be researched)
• Stock HEATFS round will have difficulties dealing with vehicle with composite armor
• Inferior optics at 9.0 offering only 8x zoom
• Is not protected by composite armor
• Shot to the center mass by any kinetic round is potentially lethal
• Almost no protection against kinetic rounds especially APFSDS which is quite common at the battle rating
• Engine will protect the crew against certain munitions but will still often catch fire and burning out after exhausting FPE is a common thing
• Driver has less protection than other crew members
• All the modules being at the front means that there is no crew protection for flankers from the rear
• Vehicle is wide and takes up a huge portion of the screen
• Ammo rack in the rear, shot from the back are often lethal

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

• 

  Merkava Mk.2B (USA) in the Operation F.R.O.S.T. garage

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• encyclopedia page on the tank;
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