I found statistics on how many Merkavas took damage during the war:
Colonel Moti Kidor, Commander of the 401 Armored Corps Brigade, however, says that “those who ask these questions simply don’t understand the field, and unfortunately these include senior IDF officers. When you look at the full picture, one understands that during the war hundreds of antitank missiles were fired, and in total 18 tanks were damaged. Of those, missiles penetrated only five or six. To my sorrow, eight soldiers were killed in these incidents.”
Eighteen tanks damaged, eight soldiers killed. I don’t know if this also counts the soldiers killed in the tank that tried to retrieve the kidnapped soldiers before the war.
He added: “Like every tank in the past and in the future, the Merkava MK 4 is vulnerable. It’s basically like asking why a chopper fell.
If you strike it, it falls. I don’t think there is any surprise here, and whoever is surprised simply doesn’t understand. It’s true that eight soldiers were killed in tanks, and that every soldier is a world in himself, but in relation to the number of missiles fired at us – it’s not a lot.”
In total dozens of Armored Corps soldiers were hurt and dozens of tanks hit, all from the Merkava MK 2, 3, and 4, some from tanks sent from the war reserves store unit shortly before entering in Lebanon. Among those injured were many reserves.
“Only a small number of tanks were seriously damaged, most of them have already been returned to units after the recovery,” said a senior IDF officer.
Hezbullah, of course, is lying about how many tanks they took out. Now, reading between the lines here, the big question is: Was Hezbullah successful? How many tanks were in the battle zone altogether? That affects the percentages, too.
The real question is not “can a tank be destroyed”? It is “can the tanks accomplish their mission at an acceptable rate of loss”? This is loss both in the sense of men killed and maimed and loss in the sense of numbers of tanks knocked out.
“Hezbullah, of course, is lying about how many tanks they took out.”
Lies are part of the miltary arsenal from times immemorial, and as much as I would like to believe that only one side (Hezbollah) undulges in this activity, I cannot.
And Michael is right. The main question is whether the surprise caused by the quality and quantity of Hezbollah’s anti-tank launchers caused, in turn, our armed units to behave differently than they would otherwise.