From David List
Since the 1920s or earlier, serial identifiers on military equipment of all
kinds have been allocated in disjointed batches with irregular gaps. This
defeated the analytical approach that Matthews asserts could have been used to
monitor Israeli production of the Merkava tank in the 1980s.
In the Second World War, the Allies’ technical intelligence agencies were
frustrated by this precaution, as were the Germans.
London
