Shalom fellas! How are you today?
Are you disappointed in the current state of the Israel ground forces? Are you tired of people constantly telling you Israel should have never been added as a full tree? Or maybe you are wondering yourself what kind of unique vehicles Israel can receive in the future. Either way, I've made this fun tech tree to showcase just how big the Israeli ground forces could get if they received any and every vehicle possible to add. As you can see, it is huge. This is less of a "This is how I want Israel to look ingame" tree and more of a giant list of vehicles that Gaijin can pick from and put in the Israel tank tree.
One of the types of proposed nations in the War Thunder forums I dislike the most are the ones that go like "Ok, I know everything until rank VI is copy and paste, and rank VI itself is made out of slight modifications, but look at those few unique vehicles at rank VII and VIII! They definitely justify the addition of a whole new nation!", which is why the Israeli ground forces have unique vehicles right from the first rank. In fact, three of the four reserve tanks are unique vehicles, and the fourth one has a unique shell instead of the usual one. The Israeli ground forces tech tree's niche is modified vehicles with a large focus on tank destroyers of any kind (except superheavies).
I would like Israel to have a subtree like Great Britain, Italy, and Sweden, but Israel does not really have any "closest friend" country that could be added as a subtree: India would more likely be added as a subtree to the USSR, Chile is a cool idea but their potential subtree would have more copy&paste than I'd like to, and if you dare suggest a USA subtree I will fill your mouth with glue. So instead, I decided to make an original idea: A subtree not based on a specific nation, but rather on vehicles created as private ventures of Israeli companies and/or for the general export market. Everyone, I'm glad to introduce the Israeli defense industry subtree! It will include foreign vehicles that did not serve with the IDF but were majorly upgraded and/or had their development co-operated by IMI, Rafael, Elbit, Nimda, or any other Israeli defense company. Most of the vehicles found in this subtree could be added to Israel without the presence of this subtree, however, the existence of the subtree allows some vehicles that would otherwise not be added to Israel to be added anyways, such as the Piranha 6x6 TCM-20, TAM VCLC, T-54M3 production, etc...
I will keep updating the tree and add any vehicles I might have missed. Currently, the tree has 203 vehicles! If there are any mistakes or maybe you just want to discuss the tree and BRs of vehicles in it, you can do so by joining the Israeli tech tree suggestions Discord server.
By the way, for those who wonder, 'Zachlam' (Hebrew: זחל"מ) is an Israeli collective designation for American halftracks (such as the M3, M5, M9, etc...) and is an acronym of 'Zahali Lemehetza' (Hebrew: זחלי למלחצה) which translates to 'Half Tracked'. There's also the 'Zachlad', which is an acronym for 'Zachlam Diesel', which is a Zachlam that got its engine changed to the M113's diesel engine, a new hydraulic steering system, and a synchronized transmission. Most if not all Zachlams were upgraded to the Zachlad standard after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Zachlads are identifiable thanks to their smooth front plate compared to a standard Zachlam's grilled front plate. For example, the ingame 'TCM-20' (Which should be called 'Zachlad TCM-20') has a smooth front plate but is missing all of the Zachlad's upgrades ingame.
Changes to existing vehicles:
- "Sho't" was renamed "Centurion Mk.5": Sho't was a designation for Israeli Centurions fitted with the L7 105mm cannon. Later, when Israel upgraded most of its Sho'ts with Continental diesel engines, the few Sho'ts that did not receive the new diesel engine were renamed "Sho't meteor", named after the British Meteor engine.
- "Tiran 4S" was renamed to "Tiran 4Sh": Every source on the internet says Tiran 4Sh and Tiran 5Sh. I have no idea why Gaijin calls them Tiran 4S and Tiran 5S. The 'Sh' is short for "Sharir", which was the IDF designation for the L7 and M68 105mm cannons in Israeli service, NOT the license-produced version (that's the M64 L71A).
- "Magach 3 (ERA)" was renamed to "Magach 3 Baltan": Blazer ERA was named "Baltan" in Israeli service, so it's fitting to be named as such.
- "Merkava Mk.3C" was renamed to "Merkava Mk.3B Baz": While "Merkava Mk.3C" is indeed a real name, the tank was named by crews who used it "Merkava Mk.3B Baz" so often that with time the unofficial nickname became the official name. Technically, both names are correct, but I feel like "Merkava Mk.3B Baz" would be more authentic.
- "TCM-20" was renamed to "Zachlam TCM-20": The TCM-20 is the turret itself, and the whole vehicle's name is Zachlam TCM-20. No idea how Gaijin messed it up.
- Zachlam TCM-20 moved to rank III: a 4.3 vehicle should be at rank III, not rank IV.
- Magach line re-folded: On update Sons of Atalia, Gaijin reorganized many tech trees and folded a lot of vehicles. Gaijin's choice of folders for the Magach line is quite messy as it has folders of Magachs that are nothing alike, so I re-foldered the vehicles in the line in a more accurate manner keeping together Magachs of similar M60 variant heritage.
- Merkava Mk.1 and Merkava Mk.2 are separated into their own folders: ingame the Merkava Mk.1B and Merkava Mk.2B are folded together, due to my tree containing many subvariants of each of them, I decided to put each variant in their own folder with their own subvariants.
- "Imp.Chaparral" was renamed to "Drakon": The latter was the domestic name given to the system by the IDF, so it is more fitting as Gaijin also seems to prefer domestic names for Israeli vehicles considering the naming scheme in the Israeli air tree.
- Drakon's BR was reduced from 10.3 to 10.0 - In my opinion, the BR of the Drakon is too high, especially when comparing it to the Imp.Chaparral in the US tree which uses the MIM-72E, which is practically the same as the MIM-72G just without IRCCM.
- Machbet folded behind Super Vulcan
- Rochev folded with M109 - It makes a lot of sense to fold these two vehicles, the only practical difference between them is the length of the barrel.
- Giraf moved to rank V - the rank position of the TOW box ingame is quite weird, with the Israeli and Italian TOW boxes being rank VI but the Taiwanese one being rank V. I decided to move the Giraf to rank V in order to fill the 5th rank better and prevent the 6th rank from being too cluttered in the TD/IFV line.
Version 1.0.0 changelog
Release date: 17/1/2024
- Transitioned all of the images to Imgur: thank you very much Discord for ruining one of the best parts about the platform. Now my Imgur library will be messy...
- All event vehicles received new, unique background color, except the ADAMS which is not an event vehicle.
- T-72M4CZ removed - I feel like an engine and transmission from Nimda aren't enough to justify the vehicle for the subtree. Yes, Nimda had quite a large part in developing the T-72M4CZ upgrade, but IMO it is quite a stretch.
- Rank VIII added! - Many vehicles in rank VII moved to rank VIII and I am too lazy to make a changelog mention for each one.
- Descriptions were given to all remaining vehicles
- New vehicle - CCKW 353 (Mle 1929)
- New vehicle - Zachlam M-2
- New vehicle - Zachlam HS.804 (1966)
- New vehicle - G-502 HS.804
- New vehicle - MMCV (ZU-23)
- New vehicle - M109 - If it was up to me I'd omit every single M109 from Israel or at least put them ALL as event vehicles (except the actually good M109I7 'Spark'), but Gaijin in their infinite wisdom chose to add it to Israel AS THEIR FIRST SPH?! Out of all the damn SPHs Israel has YOU CHOSE THE WORST OPTION!
- New vehicle - Rochev - Again, not happy with adding M109s to my tree, but I will comply.
- New vehicle - M113 ORCWS-25
- New vehicle - Super Vulcan (IMI)
- New vehicle - M113 Hutra
- New vehicle - MMCV (MAPATS)
- New vehicle - M-240 ADMS (TD32)
- New vehicle - TAM VCLC
- New vehicle - Merkava Mk.1 prototype
- New vehicle - M113 ADMS
- New vehicle - Sabrah ASCOD (PA)
- New vehicle - MANTIS
- New vehicle - Sabra Mk.3 (Iron Fist)
- CMP Ford F60 Scotti-IF - BR changed to 1.3
- Zachlam HS.804 (1948) - BR changed to 2.0
- M-72 Ro'esh - BR changed to 6.0
- M38A1C (M40A1) - BR changed to 6.3, moved to the 2nd branch and folded behind RBY Mk.1 (M40A1)
- M113 ORCWS-30 - BR changed to 6.7, moved to rank IV
- M113A2 Ultra OWS - BR changed to 7.0, moved to rank IV
- M109I7 Spark - BR changed to 7.0 - tbh I have no idea why I previously put it in 8.0 when it is quite similar to vehicles like the AuF1 and Type 99. Never mind, now its BR is well-balanced.
- M113A2 OWS-25 (30) - BR changed to 7.3, moved to rank IV on the 3rd branch
- ZSU-23-4 (Elta EL/M-2026BF) - BR changed to 8.3
- Sho't Kal Bet - BR changed to 8.3 - it received the 51mm plate, so it goes a bit higher in BR.
- FFVD - BR changed to 9.3 and moved to rank VI - as it turns out it has no SPIKE ATGMs, so it needed to go down in BR.
- FTD (Rafael) - BR changed to 9.3 and moved to rank VI - same reason as the FFVD, no ATGMs.
- Sabra Mk.1 - BR changed to 9.7
- Sabra Mk.2 - BR changed to 10.0
- TAM 2CIP - BR changed to 10.0
- Namer UT30 - BR changed to 10.0 - Lacks ATGMs
- Sabra Mk.2 (Iron Fist) - BR changed to 10.3
- Sabra Mk.3 - BR changed to 10.3
- Eitan IFV - BR changed to 10.7
- Merkava Mk.4H - BR changed to 11.7
- Merkava Mk.4 Barak - BR changed to 12.3
- SPYDER-AIO - BR changed to 12.0 - prototype only has 4 missiles
- Humber Mk.IV - folded behind T17E1
- Piranha 6x6 HVMS - folded behind M-50 HVMS
- Machbet - folded behind Super Vulcan
- FTD (IAI) - folded behind FFVD
- Pereh - folded behind Hafiz
- Merkava Mk.4 Barak - now a standalone vehicle - I felt like it is a big enough upgrade from the Mk.4M to justify being out of the folder with it.
- Zachlam HS.404 (1966) - renamed into "Zachlam HS.404"
- Zachlam HS.404 (1948) - renamed into "Zachlam HS.804 (1948)" - turns out I misidentified the autocannon, it actually uses the HS.804 L/70 and not the HS.404 L/85.
- M113A2 OWS-25 - renamed into "M113A2 OWS-25 (30)" - this name will better emphasize the weird choice of autocannon caliber on an RWS that is named OWS-25.
- AMX-13-60 - renamed into "AMX-13 (90)" - as it turns out the gun was not the 60mm HVMS but rather the 90mm Cockerill Mk.3-A8. Luckily, both autocannons perform similarly so there is no need for a BR change for the vehicle.
- NGCV (Rafael) - renamed into "FTD (Rafael)"
- NGCV (IAI) - renamed into "FTD (IAI)"
- Sabrah ASCOD - renamed into "Sabrah ASCOD (exhibition)"
- M113A2 UT30Mk2 - changed into an event vehicle
- T-72A (TISAS) - now an event vehicle - like the T-72M4CZ I feel like it does not fit the main Israeli tree. With that said, its relation to Elbit is indeed noticeable so it will remain in the tree as an event vehicle
- T-72 Aslan - renamed into T-72A (TISAS) - turns out the Aslan is a different T-72 and I confused the two.
- Merkava Mk.4A - now a premium vehicle - with the introduction of rank VII premium MBTs, I decided that the Merkava Mk.4A will fill the role nicely
- Merkava Mk.4 400 - changed into an event vehicle
- Updated info on a whole bunch of vehicles
- A bunch of other small fixes
This update took a lot more time than I expected, but it is finally DONE! After 2 years of researching and writing, my beautiful tech tree has reached a point where it is complete enough to be shared publically. I am very proud of my work and I hope you all enjoy this tech tree too. I will still continue improving the tree and adding more info and vehicles as time passes by, and from now on will also list versions of the tree updates. This version will be 1.0.0, it's by no means the first update of this tree but it is the first version to come out of work-in-progress. I am looking forward to people seeing my hard work.
I hope you guys enjoyed this custom tech tree, and if you have any questions or opinions to share feel free to join the Israeli tech tree suggestions Discord server (link above), or feel free to DM me in Discord and the War Thunder forums.
Version 1.0.1 hotfix
Release date 22/1/2024
- Specified presence of Iron Fist APS on the Eitan IFV
- Clarified number of H.39s used by the IDF, and how many had a German cupola
- Fixed corrupted image URLs
Version 1.0.2 hotfix
Release date 24/2/2024
- Fixed WT wiki missing icons: apparently, the devs of the WT wiki page thought it would be funny to add a single letter to the image URLs of the vehicle icons, breaking all old URLs and forcing me to manually fix each one. Nevermind, it's fixed now.
-ofekk213
