Rolls-Royce Solutions America has secured a $73.5-million contract to supply power-pack kits for Israel’s Merkava main battle tanks.
The deal will be financed through fiscal year 2026 foreign military sales funds allocated to Israel, with completion expected by December 31, 2032.
The contract covers the procurement of Merkava Power Pack Less Transmission full and lite kits, metal containers, and contractor-provided engineering and technical services.
The US Army Contracting Command, based at the Detroit Arsenal, is the contracting agency.
Merkava Propulsion System
The Merkava Mk 4 is powered by a 1,500-horsepower General Dynamics GD883 (MTU 883) turbocharged V-12 diesel engine, representing a 25 percent increase over the 1,200-horsepower engines used in earlier Mk 3 variants.
The same power-pack architecture is also compatible with Israel’s Namer infantry fighting vehicle, which is based on a modified Merkava chassis.
Rolls-Royce-built power-pack kits are intended to support sustainment, refurbishment, and lifecycle maintenance, helping maintain the operational availability of Israel’s armored formations.
A power pack is a modular drop-in system that integrates the engine, cooling, filtration, wiring, sensors, and ancillaries, designed for rapid unit-level replacement, reducing downtime from days to hours.
The mix of full and lite kits in the contract reflects two sustainment tracks: full kits for depot-level overhauls and resets, and lite kits for field maintenance, rapid replacement of high-wear components, and standardization of configurations across sub-variants.
