The Merkava tank is the main battle tank of the Israeli Defense Force. being a small country, Israel has always placed the main emphasis of the Merkava design on crew protection with such design features as a front-mounted engine and modular armor. Continually upgraded since the Merkava was introduced, the heavily armored tank has gone through several variants as the war fighting requirements have evolved. The version depicted is the Merkava Mk III BAZ. It featured a more powerful engine, a larger 120mm gun and a new armor package. The Merkava tank continues to evolve with the latest version being the Merkava Mk IV but the Mk II and Mk III versions will continue to serve along side the latest versions of the tank for many years to come.