The Sabra Main Battle Tank is a modernized upgraded M60A3, developed by Israel Military Industries Slavin heavy weapons plant at Ramat Hasharon. As with all upgrade programs the scope of a Sabra upgrade package is customized to meet a particular country's operational requirements.

The Sabra's main armament is a 120 mm smooth bore gun which is similar to the gun developed by Israel Military Industries (formerly TAAS) for the Merkava Mark 3 main battle tank. The gun is fitted with a fume extractor and a thermal sleeve for reduction of wear and to maximise the first round hit probability by reducing thermally induced distortion of the barrel. Stowage is provided for 42 rounds of ammunition. The gun has greater range and armour penetrating capability than the 105 mm gun installed on the M60 MBT. The gun is capable of firing NATO standard 120 mm smooth bore ammunition including Armour Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) rounds.

The co-axial machine gun is either 7.62 mm or 5.56 mm. The 60 mm mortar system is supplied by Soltam Ltd based in Haifa.

The Sabra is equipped with an automatic fire and explosion suppression system, a threat warning system and smoke grenade launchers. The tank is fitted with modular passive armor protection, which is upgraded to explosive reactive armour in the Sabra Mk II.

The hybrid turret and gun control system consists of an hydraulic elevation drive and an electric traverse drive. The tank is equipped with a Knight computerised fire control system supplied by El-Op (Electro-Optics) Industries Ltd of Rehovot and and Elbit Systems of Haifa. The fire control system is integrated into the turret control and actively controls the turret dynamics. The line of sight stabilization in elevation and azimuth provides high hit probability for stationary and on the move engagements against stationary and moving targets. The system has four modes of operation : stabilized mode with the gun axis slaved to the line of sight, slaved mode where the gunner's line of sight is slaved to the gun axis, a non stabilized mode and back-up mode with manual operation for emergency use.

The gun can be layed and fired by the gunner or the commander. The gunner's station is equipped with a periscopic x 8 magnification day sight and x 5.3 magnification night sight supplied by El-Op. The sight is stabilized in two axes. The eyesafe Nd:YAG laser rangefinder operates over a range typically 200 to 9995 meters with an accuracy of +/- 5 meters.

The Sabra engine is the air-cooled AVDS-1790-5A four stroke diesel engine by General Dynamics, developing 908 horsepower at 2,400 rpm, which represents a gross power to combat weight ratio of 16.5 horsepower per ton.

The running gear has been upgraded for cross country mobility and features six road wheels per side, trailing arm suspension, torsion bar springs, piston dampers, three per side piston bumpers and single pin steel tracks.

The Sabra provides a maximum road speed of 48 km per hour and accelerates from zero to 32 km/hour in 9.6 seconds. The range on hard level ground is 450 km. The tank can negotiate slopes of gradient 60%, side slopes 30%, 2.60 m trenches, and 0.91 m obstacle height. The fording depth without preparation is 1.40 m and with preparation 2.40 m.