Israeli Sci-fi Weapons

The Algemeiner reports that the Israelis are developing some really futuristic stuff:

One of the most significant pieces revealed on Tuesday was the lightweight and cost-effective Carmel armored vehicle, slated to replace Israel’s current Merkava tank. The Merkava has been in service for more than four decades.
The Carmel requires two crew members as opposed to four in the Merkava, and utilizes a battery-powered hybrid gas-electric engine.

Other notable technologies unveiled by ADW include three new unmanned aerial vehicles — one equipped with a “smart rifle” — and two unmanned undersea vehicles. The unmanned submarines will be available in large and small models, with the smaller version developed with assistance from Bar-Ilan University.
The ministry also debuted its SMASH electro-optical aiming system, which enables soldiers to lock on to targets with their firearms, avoiding unnecessary civilian casualties.

We suspect the undersea drones will have two purposes. First to guard the shore against Palestinian frogmen, second to protect the pipeline for the new Leviathan offshore natural gas field.

Here's a pick of the Carmel:

Futuristic, no? Looks kind of like an old South African Ratel, too. The Carmel will be much quieter and looks like it has a lighter caliber gun. We regard the Merkeva as the 2nd best tank in the world. But the Carmel seems better suited to urban guerrilla and anti-terror warfare.

In Israel Strikes the Merkeva's were right in the thick of the urban fighting:

The Battle of Marjayoun began just after sunrise. As it had throughout the first two days of the Lebanon Campaign, the IDF began the battle with a noise and light barrage. Once more Israeli Jets crisscrossed the sky at supersonic speed, shattering windows below and dropping flares into the streets of the town. Blackhawk and Apache helicopters soon followed. These engaged Hezbollah targets within the town. This reporter, from less than a kilometer away, saw one Apache pepper a two-story building with nose cannon fire, silencing the Hezbollah fighters within.

Hezbollah fighters would fire and run, fire and run, often using the sewers of the town to move between buildings. The Israeli helicopters played this game for more than an hour. Finally, at 0815 hours, the brigade commander gave the order to advance. The Rou de Marjayoun runs through the center of town. It is wide, multilane boulevard. The main Israeli effort would advance along it. There are secondary roads on either side of the Rou de Marjayoun,  and the brigade commander detailed several platoons to advance along these in conjunction with the main, battalion-sized force. They advanced out of Qiaala, a village about a kilometer southeast of Marjayoun, which the brigade had taken in sharp battle the day before.

At the edge of Marjayohn lies a line of two-story buildings and about a hundred yards behind these, are a series of L-shaped apartment complexes. It was here that the Israelis met the first serious resistance. This reporter was riding in an APC near the rear of the advancing column when the fighting began in earnest. The battalion took small arms, machine gun, and RPG fire from the buildings along the road. Two RPGs hit a Merkeva tank, knocking it off its treads and forcing the crew to bail out. The rest of the column halted and opened fire. The stucco and concrete façade of the buildings exploded as thousands of bullets impacted upon them. With the column halted, Hezbollah unleashed a mortar barrage from within Marjayoun and launched half a dozen Anti Tank Guided Missiles from the apartments behind the road. An Israeli APC exploded, but the tanks were unharmed as their Trophy anti-missile systems knocked down the ATGMs. The barrage continued for several minutes until the Apaches swooped in over the apartments and brought the missile crews under fire. When the battalion commander was satisfied the missile crews and launchers had been destroyed, he ordered the advance to resume.

A hundred yards down the road the lead APC disappeared in an explosion of fire and dust. As two APCs pulled up beside the stricken vehicle the battalion continued to advance, taking fire from buildings along the road and also mortars within Marjayoun along the way. Another APC  hit a mine, and a minute later a tank lost its right treads. Next, an APC detailed to move in and cover the stricken vehicles itself hit a mine. The trio of vehicles was brought under heavy small arms and machine gun fire. A platoon of tanks advanced cautiously, engaging Hezbollah fighters with .30 and .50 caliber MGs, but not with their main guns for fear of civilians.

The column halted for a time. Then an ominous rumble could be heard coming from the rear, it grew louder until a pair of massive D-9 Bulldozers took to the head of the column. Israeli soldiers clapped and cheered as they rolled past, giving the drivers a thumbs up and flashing the V- for victory sign. It is not hard to understand why. These are armored behemoths with reinforced plows, specially designed to detonate mines and improvised explosive devices.

Advancing side by side  D-9s did just that. They detonated dozens of mines and pipe bombs. A pair of tanks and APCs advanced behind them, laying down covering fire. Small arms fire bounced off their hulls, as did an occasional RPG. The accompanying Israeli gunners kept a sharp eye out for ATGMs and fired whenever one appeared in the distance. One missile got close to the left hand  D-9, but it was brought down by a nearby Merkeva’s Trophy system. The twin D-9s had advanced about 250 yards to a collection of houses. Here, Hezbollah got desperate. About a dozen fighters ran out of the houses, shouting ‘Allah Akbar!’ and firing their weapons into the air. These were just cover for suicide bombers who came out of the house behind them. The attack was futile, all the fighters were cut down on the side of the road, and two suicide bombers were detonated by Israeli gunners before they could get near the D-9s. The Israelis shot the houses to bits.

Before resuming the advance. one of the D-9 drivers got out of the cab of his bulldozer and shouted up at Marjayoun. Then he reached inside and pulled out the banner of Maccabbi Ashdod, his favorite basketball team and shouted, ‘You will have to do better than that, Hezbos!’ Once more, Israeli soldiers cheered. The advance resumed behind the invincible bulldozers until they reached the base of Marjayoun proper. Beyond this point the ground rises more steeply into a complex town of narrow and asymmetrical streets. Israeli soldiers deployed from their APCs in a rough line outside the center of town and awaited the order to advance deeper into battle….