Amusement?

[sapper740]

FearNaught, I did a little research and Israel indeed acquired two Chieftains for assessment in the late '60s. Upon the arrival of the Chieftains, they cancelled their indigenous MBT program, but the British Foreign Office recalled the two Chieftains after bowing to international pressure. After unacceptable losses in the Yom Kippur War, Israel looked long and hard at the world's available tanks' cost/benefit/suitability/crew survivability and found they all came up short and so designed the Merkava I in the '70s. However, even after manufacture of the Merkava began, Israel continued to upgrade their existing complement of Centurions, M48s, M60s, T55s, and T62s.