As Israeli tanks mass along border regions near Lebanon and Israeli Defense Forces fire ground rockets and artillery into Lebanese territory, a larger ground invasion appears imminent. Many are likely to wonder what kind of defenses Hezbollah might present .. and what a ground war might involve? How will IDF heavy armor and Merkava tanks perform against Hezbollah fighters and weapons?
Clearly the IDF operates with air superiority, and an air-ground kind of attack using fighter jets and ground artillery are likely to “soften-up” or “prepare” the terrain in Southern Lebanon for an Israeli ground incursion, so it would seem the IDF may have little difficulty occupying territory.
Should sufficient areas of Southern Lebanon be “cleared” or determined less risky by advanced ISR, Merkava tanks could very well be used to invade Lebanon.
Hezbollah is well known to have large numbers of Anti-Tank-Guided Missiles, RPGs and rockets, an arsenal which has likely been massively upgraded and expanded since previous substantial Israeli-Hamas military confrontations roughly 10-to-15 years ago during the Israeli-Hezbollah 2006 war.
Hezbollah is likely now armed with a new generation of longer-range, precision-guided ATGMs, RPGs or other Iranian-provided anti-armor weapons, the kinds of munitions which had some success against Israeli tanks and armored vehicles years ago. Hezbollah is known historically for what, years ago, was referred to as a kind of “cutting-edge” Hybrid type warfare combining historic terrorist tactics with various kinds of conventional attacks and advanced weaponry.
Certainly the Israeli Defense Forces are likely to have closely examined the threat equation regarding anti-armor weapons relative to any possible ground invasion, given Ukraine’s success with anti-armor weapons and Hezbollah’s known combat history. However, should advanced IDF Merkava tanks enter Lebanon, what are some of the threats and variables likely to define the experience? Could IDF Merkava tanks survive Hezbollah RPG and ATGM attacks? This is clearly a critical question likely being entertained by IDF commanders at the moment. For many years now, Hezbollah is known to have acquired large numbers of small arms and sniper rifles from Russia and Iran, but also had accumulated a formidable arsenal of anti-armor weapons such as SA-7s and RPG-29s, grenades and anti-tank-guided missiles, according to a 2009 essay called “Back to Basics” written by the US Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Given the state of commercial technology and weapons proliferation, Hezbollah is now likely to be armed with ATGMs with a higher-level of precision than may have been the case at the time of the study.
