Israel Expanding Tank and APC Production to Rebuild After Major Losses in Gaza and Against Hezbollah

The Israeli Defence Ministry has approved a $1.5 billion program to expand the production of Merkava main battle tanks and Namer and Eitan armoured personnel carriers (APCs) over the next five years. This investment was decided on following close to two years of combat with Palestinian paramilitary groups in the Gaza Strip, and after months of intense clashes with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which have resulted in significant armour losses. According to the ministry’s statement, the investment “will increase the armoured vehicle inventory while boosting production rates of the Merkava Mk. 4 Barak tanks, Namer APCs, and Eitan wheeled APCs, including those equipped with a turreted 30mm cannon.” It added that “these platforms have accumulated more than one million kilometres in [the] current operation,” highlighting the Israeli Army’s heavy reliance on them for a range of operations.

The Namer is among the heaviest armoured personnel carriers in the world, with a weight comparable to that of a main battle tank, and was built on the Merkava chassis providing significant commonality between the designs. The Eitan is Israel’s first eight-wheeled APC, and is a lighter and more mobile vehicle that has been incrementally upgraded over time, most recently with the addition of a remote-controlled turret armed with a 30mm cannon.

Footage from early October, 2023, showed significant losses among Israel’s Merkava tanks, as advancing Palestinian paramilitary groups captured several dozen of the vehicles and hundreds of other Israeli Army vehicles, before destroying them as they withdrew. Personnel from the Palestinian Hamas paramilitary group were confirmed by video footage to have used drones to strike Israeli armour, gaining at least one kill against an a Merkava tank during the early hours of hostilities. After Israel initiated a full scale invasion of the Gaza Strip later that month, footage frequently showed successful attacks by Hamas paramilitary units against Merkava tanks, which often involved pairing planted explosives with the use of rocket propelled grenades using the cover of cities to ambush the vehicles. Some of these ambushes have seen heavily enhanced new Merakva IV variants with advanced Trophy active protection systems neutralised and their crews killed, which have been considered significant feats in light of how lightly armed Palestinian paramilitary groups have been.

After Israel launched an invasion of Southern Lebanon in late September 2024, multiple reports from both Lebanese and Israeli sources indicated that Israeli ground units ambushed by the local paramilitary group Hezbollah took significant losses, with further reports specifying the losses of Merkava tanks. Hezbollah has previously demonstrated advanced anti tank capabilities, and when repelling an Israeli invasion in 2006 made effective use of Russian Kornet missiles to destroy multiple Merkava III and Merkava IV tanks. Merkava tanks in December 2024 spearheaded advances deep into Syria, after the Syrian government was overthrown by Israeli and Turkish and Qatari backed insurgents, which allowed the Israeli Army to rapidly take ground without facing local resistance. The overthrow of the Syrian Ba’ath Party, a longstanding adversary of Israel, and the installation of a new regime closely aligned with Western and Turkish interests, has taken significant pressure of the Israeli Army, as the Syrian Arab Army had previously fielded a formidable hostile tank fleet and anti-tank capabilities across Israel’s border.