TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Actually you are wrong. In regards to Russian export you are pretty close but The Abrams Export models have the same electronics save for differences in communications that are found in American Abrams. What is different is the armor package.read everywhere people claiming that those Leclercs, M1s, and Leopard 2s destroyed in the middle east in the last few years are all due to selling them sub-standard variants. These claims are garbage and come from the mouths of western stronkists who cannot take the ego hit. The truth is these sold tanks are nearly identical in armour package with the main difference being some sensors, electronics, software, and communication equipment. The mechanics are exactly the same because the production line will not be redeveloping an entirely new method of fabrication and manufacturing of parts just to sell another nation a monkey model.
Modern tank armor is modular and for Abrams at least part of that modular design is a Depleated Uranium mesh. This mesh however is not put on export Abrams and is mostly mounted to the frontal arch any way.
In the case of Leopard2 lost in combat by Turkey these are older iterations of the leopard 2. More modern versions have moved to different armor systems with increased General protection.
The biggest problem though has been stupidity. That is deploying tanks without infantry support.
You will always have weak points in protection to the sides and rear of a tank. This is due to the fact that these are functional areas of the tank normally housing tracks and power pack.
Merkava has a different issue for the rear of the Tank though the space where one would normally find the power pack is a cargo bay. This bay can be used for either troops or more often Ammo. This is the biggest issue with the Merkava series in nonconvantional conflict storing ammo in the hull like that. It's part of the reason the Isrealis were mounting Cage armor, Era and chains on there tanks earlier than most western tanks. It's also part of the reason the Israeli military pushed hard for Trophy.
Following these trends the Abrams Leopard and Leclerc all add on Era and cage armor with work on APS. But most western tanks place there era to the sides of the tanks not the front