No 1st gen tank has a bad off road capability ( except T-95 ) but given the vids from the Lebanon conflict Merkava has some serious manouverability issues in difficult terrain.

As for the backdoor, given that virtually all damaged Merkavas got it up the ass and some were hit with rubbish like Spigots or RPG-9 AND mission killed which should not happen at all so yes its a major weakness.

When you show me a detailed statistic of all hits on merkava in lebanon you can say that. Unfortunatly, you wont be able to find one because its classified. Ive seen it and your wrong. But i cant go into detail cause again, its classified.

As far as off road, the Merkava is actually pretey good in my experiece, if the crew knows how to use it. If you are an ass you will get stuck(like i did a couple of times), but usually the tank crosses things your sure you cant cross.

The Leopard 2A6 and the T-95 seem to be the best when it comes to overall advantage in armor, mobility, tech, range, and fuel. What lets the M1A2 down is the fact that it needs a huge fuel and maintenance convoy to continuously operate them, and if a nation does not have the huge supply capability to operate the M1A2 in huge numbers the tanks fails to make an impact on the battlefield.

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

The Abrams is the king of the sand... while the T-95 would fare best on a Western European Terrain, even with the technicologically superior Leopard.

1-Abrams (overall it's arguably the best tank ever made)
2-Leopard (everything the Abrams has except someone to fight)
3-T-95 (the world's first disposable heavy tank)

How is that ? The T series have notorious mobility issues which russian army was never able to solve with 'any' of their tanks.

by the way, 1st generation MBT refers to older tanks. The tanks discussed here are probably 3rd generation.

Is there any operational/prototype 4th generation tank as well?

As Sherman said, a tank is only as good as it's crew!
As for gen 4, Merekava 4, M1A2 SEP & Leodard 2A6 PSO are almost there.

Originally Posted by johnnyQAMR

As Sherman said, a tank is only as good as it's crew!
As for gen 4, Merekava 4, M1A2 SEP & Leodard 2A6 PSO are almost there.

These are deemed 3rd generation tanks with extensive upgrades.

Does anyone know where the upcoming K2 MBT will fit? I'm guessing though it's supposed to be one of the most advanced tanks in the world, it'll still very much be a 3rd generation MBT.

Originally Posted by Lunatik

Is there any operational/prototype 4th generation tank as well?

A few FCS proto types from the U.S and Russian programs, T-95 may be but we do not know enough of this vehicle to know for certain.