Armed with a 30mm GAU-8 rotary cannon, the Magach 5 had been well liked by its crews and the infantry alike but the cannon had proved to be a little on the brutal side when fighting in built up areas even for the IDF.
However, by the mid-1990s and the height of the South Lebanon Conflict, the IDF and population of northern Israel were growing weary of Hezbollah’s continued rocket attacks. In Apr 1996, Operation Grapes of Wrath was launched to clear Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon and the gloves were most definitely off.

The need for a Magach 5-like urban escort vehicle was understood but nothing was readily available and there was no particular desire to detract from the planned AFV construction schedule. Fortunately, the IDF’s Technological and Logistics Directorate had some suitable trials vehicles to hand and without further ado they were unceremonially pressed in to service. The three vehicles carried a GAU-12 in a M2 Bradley turret (purchased for an earlier Heavy APC trial) mounted on a M4A3E8 Sherman hull. The turrets were the primary goal of the study and the Shermans had been selected for no other reason than they were already available in the research and development facility. As it turned out, the mating of these two unlikely partners produced a surprisingly simple and efficient offspring.

As no-one had ever envisaged the elderly Shermans actually going into battle, it was decided to give them as much of a sporting chance as possible and therefore, a layer of Blazer explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) was added. For additional utility, and an extra degree of frontal protection, a dozer blade was added.

As the fighting intensified, the three M4A3E8 Urban Combat Vehicles (UCV) - Raam (Thunder), Barak (Lightning) and Saar (Storm) - proved their worth on numerous occasions and became a firm favourite with the infantry and tankers alike in the resulting destruction of Hezbollah’s South-Lebanon command.

The model depicts Saar (Storm) and is made from parts of an old Tamiya M4A3, a Tamiya M2 Bradly, a AFV Club M4A3E8 HVSS and track set, a Verlinden M113 dozer blade, the ubiquitous white plastic card and some bits and pieces from the spares box.

The first third of that picture should be banned.