Rather along the lines of what I was thinking. Greece is basically bankrupt and looking at high $ military items w/ high $ maintenance/training requirements. That seems a poor match. That and many of the repair/spare parts require special storage. I could envision some of these disappearing from Greece and finding their way to an enemies research labs though.
I could envision some of these disappearing from Greece and finding their way to an enemys research labs though.
The TDP, Technical Data Package, has been sold twice that Im aware of; once to South Korea and once to Egypt. The TDP is the entire drawing package and with it an industrious buyer could build the entire tank with all capabilities. The South Koreans, (Hyundai) immediately tried to undercut GDs price on spares with their home built LRUs (Line Replaceable Units; the boxes that make the tank functional.) The Egyptians are (or were) setting up production lines to also build the LRUs. This may or may not be in violation of the agreements theyve signed as I heard GD was upset over this. We found out because the Egyptians tried to hire some key people who told the company about the offer.
There are no gee-whiz technologies involved in the tank. It is a superb piece of hardware and software but nothing about it is now cutting edge. I would venture to guess that it now has serious rivals in the tank world and that winning against a rival armed with competing tanks made by Germany, Russia or Israel would be much more a matter strategy, tactics and chance than pure technical superiority.
Moreover, the Israelis, who have 1500 Merkavas, which is arguably at least the Abrams equivalent if not its superior, have recently started planning on taking the tank out of service. They plan on replacing it with smaller, lighter vehicles. I believe the Israelis have arrived at the same conclusion the American Army has reached. The main battle tanks capabilities are no longer worth the logistical foot print it requires. Also, the battlefield is rapidly evolving and munitions that could kill a tank might become rapidly so cheap and plentiful that they wipe out a huge investment before an army has a chance to react with new countermeasures.
Im aware that we lost one tank in Gulf War 1, with the crew, to an apparently never before seen weapon. This weapon was not (to my knowledge) seen again and the thinking I heard suggested it was the field test of a prototype anti-tank device. If this is the case it might explain why Israel, which has unquestioned regional tank superiority, is planning to remove the Merkavas from service.