Editing Magach 5 (section)

==History==
Class: Main Battle Tank</br>
Developed: 1975</br>
Service: 1976-2000s</br>
Vehicles Built: 2219</br>
Operators: Israel

The Magach MBTs were (more or less) modified American M48 and M60 series of Main Battle Tanks, purchased by Israel starting from the 1960s. The first of these tanks were secretly provided by West Germany with the official U.S. deliveries following during the years after. The M48 series bore the designation Magach 1 to Magach 5, the M60 MBTs (the initial version) bore the designation Magach 6 and Magach 7 while the M60A1 and M60A3 MBTs bore the designation Magach 6A to Magach 6B. For many decades, the Magach series formed the backbone of the Israeli armored forces alongside the Super Shermans, Centurions and Merkava MBTs before they were finally retired in 2014.

The Magach 5 model was an upgraded M48A5 tank – the last M48 series version armed with the same 105mm rifled gun the Sho’t tank carried. Most of these tanks were built directly in Israel by converting existing M48A1 and M48A3 MBTs to the M48A5 level between 1975 and 1979. Additionally, 150 more M48A5 tanks were purchased directly from the USA in 1978. Shortly after their introduction to service, they were retrofitted with the Blazer ERA kit and were used for the first time in combat in Operation Peace for Galilee. The Blazer armor once again proved its worth against older Soviet ATGMs, protecting the vehicle almost completely unless vulnerable areas were not specifically targeted. Starting from the mid-1980s, these were treated as second-line tanks at best and were gradually withdrawn from active service. Some were kept in reserve until the early 2000s but did not participate in any fighting.