Israeli military historian Oleg Granovsky, to review regularly the Israeli military-industrial complex, He conducted a study, in which, comparing sources, has estimated the number of "Merkava" tank project, issued during the existence of the program.
At the moment, the IDF and the Israeli Ministry of Defense do not publish official summary data on the production volumes of the MBT "Mervkava" as a whole, and for individual models. In the same time, scattered numbers were often publicly available.
The concept of the Merkava project was born in 1970 year, when the government, together with the Ministry of Defense, decided to create their own Israeli tank. The first official press photo appeared in 1977 year, and two years later, the tank was officially presented.
Different sources give different estimates of the released tanks.
Merkava has 4 versions. At the moment, "Merkava-1" has completely left the acting forces. According to historian David Edelman for 2017 year, "Merkava-2" completely dropped out of the personnel units, in the reserve units, she also almost did not remain. The main battle tanks of the IDF are now the third and fourth versions of the "chariot" – this is how the name of tanka is translated from Hebrew.
National Security Research Institute Report (INSS) for 2014 city, dedicated to the Israel Defense Forces, gives the following figures: 580 "Merkava" 1 and 2 in operational storage, 780 "Merkava-3", 360 "Merkava-4" and more 300 production or ordered.
Granovsky also cites several other sources., in particular, an article by Rolf Hilmes for 2009 city: it mentioned 350 "Merkava-1" (1979-1983 gg.), 350 "Merkava-2" (1983-1989 gg.), 350 "Merkava-3" (1990-2002 gg, incl. 150 at 1990-1995 gg. and 200 at 1995-2000 gg.), 400 "Merkava-4" (from 2002 city, ordered).
Israeli researcher notes, that for all the years of production, the irrecoverable losses of the "Merkav" were small, and amounted to approximately 20 pcs. Unknown number of tanks - within 7 units - was lost in 1982 year. Several cars - without irrecoverable losses - were hit in southern Lebanon in the 90s.
The IDF lost the most "Merkav" in the 21st century, when this vehicle became the main battle tank of the IDF. 3 were destroyed in Gaza in 2002 year, 5 - in Lebanon, in 2006, several vehicles were lost for non-combat reasons.
How many tanks were produced?
AT 1979 the first 4 serial tank, and in 1980 the construction was already confirmed 30 machines. Then the pace grew - 7-12 machines per month. As a result, the IDF received approximately 120 tanks per year. However, information on, how long has this pace been maintained?.
Granovsky had to turn to the data on the units, armed with a tank: the number of staff members was also known from them, and the number of units, armed with one or another tank. Eventually, bringing together this and other data, the historian went to figure from 222 to 300 machines of the first generation maximum.
Oleg Granovsky emphasizes, that much less is known about the production of "Merkava-2". The calculation of the number of produced cars of this model had to be carried out rather roughly., by brigades. Moreover, the researcher notes, that due to the reduction of the military budget, from 1984 production rate dropped significantly. However, despite this, the total number of second "Merkav" was more - 369, in the case of incomplete states - 350.
"Merkava-3" have been produced since 1989 by 2002 of the year. Their, according to Granovsky, released from 693 to 702. Granovsky's assessment of the "Merkava-4" gives 460-480 Machines of this type, with a continuing production rate in 30 vehicles per year. The historian emphasizes, what in 2018 IDF first published statistics, which noted, what the 2017 year the Israeli army received 30 new machines.
In total, the estimated number of "Merkavs" produced for the entire time The Israeli historian counted 1,760-1,880 machines.
