Because neither me, you, or anyone on this forum or on fucking Wikipedia can have any solid information on the engine of the Zulfiqar-3. It's a prototype of an extremely secretive military that barely publishes any information, there is no way we can know anything. Even the claims about the suspension are rubbish since we have not seen the Z3's suspension close up. Just because it uses torsion bar suspension (probably the most common suspension type in human history) doesn't mean that suspension is taken from an M60.
As for penetrating an Abrams from the front - what blithering idiot tries to penetrate an Abrams from the front with ANYTHING? Even if you use a Leapord 2 or an ATGM you are making your job unnecessarily difficult. A military commander who makes it his aim to attack tanks from the front is leading his men to suicide. Any skilled tank crew will aim to get different types of shots on an enemy.
There are 4 different ways to get kills in tank warfare.
Smart crews will get a mobility kill by disabling the tank's tracks or engine. You do this in modern tank warfare, and the tank is dead. This can also be a mission kill if the enemy is advancing on a position.
Firepower kills destroy the tank's gun, in a variety of ways. You can hit the side or rear of the turret with most tank guns - including the 2A46M - and disable the enemy tank's gun, especially if you are using advanced ammunition. ATGMs (which CAN be fired from the 2A46M
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M119 ) can also do the job.
A catastrophic kill is when you get a really good hit, or after already disabling the tank in other ways. These are the blowing off turrets, smoking out the crew you see on TV/YT. You do these by hitting the ammo or fuel storage. The Americans and their DU shells got a lot of these kills against the Iraqi's Soviet tanks, who employed bad tactics, and didn't even have ERA.
Iran's APS is of the more well established "soft kill" type, jamming or blinding enemy ATGMs. Look at the below T-72 equipment on the turret, especially the tall emitter, and the 2 black boxes on either side of the gun barrel in the second photo (they look very Shtora-y to me).
And Iran has
said it has equipped M60s with anti-TOW jamming system. Early TOWs are prone to IR jamming (technical discussion
here) and modern TOWs are wireless and therefore prone to jamming.
In any case, I doubt the usefulness of a Trophy-like APS. Tanks MUST be accompanied by infantry (especially to weed out ATGM teams), and firing shotguns in the presence is opening you up to friendly fire. And I don't care what Rafael says, you wouldn't say your own products flaws if you're trying to sell it.
Of course you can penetrate an Abrams from the front, a LAHAT ATGM will be good enough
Also, IMI (Israel) and Ordnance Enterprise (Switzerland) developed a 140mm cannon, its sabot shell can penetrate 1 meter of RHA, over enough to penetrate an Abrams, which will be implemented on the Mk4, and maybe the FMCV series in the next few years.
"Smart crews will get a mobility kill by disabling the tank's tracks or engine. You do this in modern tank warfare, and the tank is dead. This can also be a mission kill if the enemy is advancing on a position."
Tracks on the Merkava? maybe
Engine? no.
First of all, there is a lot of armor in the front, even though the Engine is in the front.
Second of all, there are 2 more armor plates before anything could reach the engine
Tracks can be easily fixed, matter of a hour or so.
I know missiles can be fired from the 2A46M, but are useless against the Merkava, armor wise and APS wise.
"A catastrophic kill is when you get a really good hit, or after already disabling the tank in other ways. These are the blowing off turrets, smoking out the crew you see on TV/YT. You do these by hitting the ammo or fuel storage. The Americans and their DU shells got a lot of these kills against the Iraqi's Soviet tanks, who employed bad tactics, and didn't even have ERA."
Again, the Merkava is already confirmed the most protected tank in the world, armor and APS wise.
Hell, Hezbollah fired a lot of ATGMs against the Israelis in 2006, destroying only 3 Merkavas, none of them were Mk4, before the Trophy.
"Iran's APS is of the more well established "soft kill" type, jamming or blinding enemy ATGMs. Look at the below T-72 equipment on the turret, especially the tall emitter, and the 2 black boxes on either side of the gun barrel in the second photo (they look very Shtora-y to me)."
This might be just a radar, I cannot find anything about Iranian APS in the internet.
"And Iran has
said it has equipped M60s with anti-TOW jamming system. Early TOWs are prone to IR jamming (technical discussion
here) and modern TOWs are wireless and therefore prone to jamming."
That's easily prevented by coded IR flare. this makes it immune to IR jammers
And also, the second thing you said is bullshit.
TOW stands for Tube-launched, optically-tracked, *WIRE*-guided.
So its completely resistant to jamming.
"
In any case, I doubt the usefulness of a Trophy-like APS. Tanks MUST be accompanied by infantry (especially to weed out ATGM teams), and firing shotguns in the presence is opening you up to friendly fire. And I don't care what Rafael says, you wouldn't say your own products flaws if you're trying to sell it."
Why would troops need to accompany a tank with APS against ATGM troops?
Anyways, you can be 10 meters away from the tank and you'll be safe.
