Lox Archival Site

The Sholef was an attempt at an SPG (Self-propelled gun) based on the Merkava Mark 1 chassis. The name "Sholef" (Hebrew: "שולף") literally translates as “drawing” or “drawer” in the “pull something out” meaning of “to draw” - for that reason, it is equally translatable as “Slammer” or “Gunslinger”. The project was a 1980 initiative by Soltam’s CEO at the time Yakov Lior. IDF’s at the time Commander of the General Staff (CGS) - Rafael Eitan was on board with the idea, but the IDF could not afford it. Eventually, Lior offered that Soltam would pay for the development of the turret and 155mm cannon, while the MoD would fund the trials, providing hulls, crews, fuel, and ammunition. The project officially started in 1980, yet it was closed down for a short while between September 1981 and January 1982.  Only two prototypes were ever built - the second prototype was completed in early 1987 had a few improvements over the first, most notably an L/52 cannon in place of the ...

The caption on this photo reads - "Eyal Himelstein and Nissim Ben-Hemo on the light tank prototype". T here's a lot of misinformation on this subject on the internet,  a s far as I've seen the photo traces to one book. There is little information on the tank itself in the book. I've translated the text in the hope that people could gather the facts for themselves instead of being confused by bad machine translations or the broken PDF file. The entry is by Nissim Ben-Hemo in a book in memorial of Colonel Yehiam Harpaz, one of the leading officers in the Merkava development program and often called "Mr. Suspension". He was the inventor of the Mark 3 suspension. The entry is focused on his role in the light tank project :      " The development and assembly of a prototype for a light tank were carried out in parallel with the development of the Merkava Mark 4. The technical branches were very busy with the many new assemblies that were introduced with...