[Black Baron]

The primary purpose of merkava is to destroy various T's not to carry infantry around. We have done it in Gaza strip, yes (We even had a tank ambulance with a doctor and two medics there), but it is unorthodox tank usage. Besides in order to do it you have to remove 20/50 (in Gaza strip all our tanks had 30 out of 50 shells. We had to remove 20 out of 50 shells in order to make place for water, tools and food. Remember-you can't go outside of the tank in Gaza strip because you will be shot. I had to sit in the tank for days, some times even a week without breathing fresh air.) of your shells. If you remove 20/50 you can place with great discomfort one or two infantrymen. If you remove 40/50 shells you leave a tank with 10 shells and 4 infantrymen that will curse the day they were born, because they will have such a bumpy ride that bull riding in rodeo comes to mind as a comparison.

In short-while Merkava can carry infantry around it comes at a price (shells), and it is not its main purpose anyway.

Now about the Stuart tank. It is a tank from ww2, and modern technology (as well as definition of what tank actually is) had advanced quite a bit. When someone today says "tank" they mean Main Battle Tank. This APC does not even stands close.

Besides i know what this vehicle actually is. Our mechanics crew uses it. Trust me, it is not a tank. It weighs around 10 tons, and it has only 1 MG. In my army (which is a professional army insofar as names are concerned) we called it NaGMash-Nose Gyisot Meshurian (in english- APC).