U.S. and Israeli Armor is in Trouble: Russian Anti-Tank Missiles Can Destroy M1 and Merkava Tanks

The U.S. and Israel have discovered that the new Russian AT-13 Metis-M (NATO codename: Saxhorn) anti-tank missile can penetrate the reactive armor and thick armor plating that both armies have come to rely on for their tanks to survive on a modern battlefield.

All versions of the U.S. M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams main battle tank and the next generation Israeli Merkava main battle tank have proven vulnerable to the anti-tank missile. It uses a "tandem" warhead, or a warhead that explodes twice.

The first part of the warhead is designed to take out a tank's "reactive" armor (explosive packs or bricks which explode outwards to blunt the impact of the missile and keep the tank operational.) Both the U.S. Army and the Israeli Army use reactive armor on their main battle tanks.

Then the second part of the warhead hits the tank itself and penetrates, exploding on the inside. Israel lost four Merkava tanks and at least 26 other Merkavas were badly damaged by the Russian anti-tank missiles (which were originally sent to Syria by the Russian Federation and then transferred to Hezbollah). Israel captured a number of the weapons plus the Russian-made RPG-29 (which also happens to have a tandem warhead) and has filed a protest with the Russians over the illegal transfer of arms.

The number of tank crews injured or killed was very high and made up a significant percentage of the Israeli military killed/wounded.

U.S. forces are encountering the weapons in Iraq as well with devastating results: tanks that ate multiple RPGs and kept on fighting during the invasion of Iraq and in the months afterward can be severely damaged or destroyed by a single Metis-M hit today.

When the U.S. makes an arms deal, there's a "no transfer" clause in the contract; do the Russians do the same thing? If Russia's against terrorism, one would think they would be demanding explanations from the Syrians on why their most advanced weapons systems ended up in the hands of terrorists.

In any case, the U.S. and Israeli defense communities are working on a fix to the problem. Hopefully it's an easy solution and they make haste.