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The Leopard 2 is a German main battle tank
produced by the German company Krauss-Maffei
Wegmann and since the year 2003 by Spanish company
Santa Bárbara Sistemas. Developed in the early
1970s and first entering service in 1979,
replacing the earlier Leopard 1 as the foremost
MBT in the German Army. Its different versions
have served in the armed forces of Germany and ten
other European countries, as well as non-European
countries. More than 3,480 Leopard 2s have been
manufactured.
There are two main development batches of the
tank, the original models up to Leopard 2A4 which
have vertically faced turret armour, and the
"improved" batch, namely Leopard 2A5 and newer,
which have angled arrow-shaped turret add-on
armour together with a number of other
improvements. All models feature digital fire
control systems with laser range-finders, fully
stabilized main gun and coaxial machinegun and
night vision equipment (first vehicles used a
Low-Light Level TV system or LLLTV, thermal
imaging was introduced later on). The tank has the
ability to engage moving targets while moving over
rough terrain. It can drive through water 4 meters
deep using a snorkel or 1.2 meters without any
preparation and climb vertical obstacles over 1
meter high. The tank is powered with a
turbo-charged multi-fuel V12 diesel engine that
produces 1,500 horsepower.
Even as the Leopard was entering service in 1965,
an up-gunned Leopard with the new Rheinmetall L44
120-mm gun being was considered to keep pace with
the newer Soviet designs, but this was cancelled
in favour of the joint MBT-70 "super-tank" project
with the United States. The MBT-70 was a
revolutionary design, but after large cost
overruns, Germany withdrew from the project in
1969.
Work on a national development was started in 1970
by Krauss-Maffei. A year later a choice was made
for it to be based on the earlier
Experimentalentwicklung (later named Keiler)
project of the late sixties (itself derived from
the vergoldeter Leopard or Gilded Leopard),
instead of being a modified MBT-70 or Eber. The
name of the design was determined in 1971 as
"Leopard 2" with the original Leopard
retroactively becoming the Leopard 1. Seventeen
prototypes were ordered that year (only sixteen
hulls were built). They had to have a maximum
weight of fifty metric tons.
Leopard 2A4 of the Polish Army.
Leopard 2A4 of the Polish Army.
Leopard 2A4 of the Singapore Army
Leopard 2A4 of the Singapore Army
On 11 December 1974 a Memorandum of Understanding
was signed with the USA for the possible joint
production of a new MBT, after the Americans had
bought and investigated prototype hull number
seven in 1973. In view of the experiences in the
Yom Kippur War a much higher level of protection
was demanded than was implemented in the
prototypes, that used heavily sloped spaced
armour. The weight class was increased to sixty
tons. Prototype turret number fourteen was changed
to test a new armour configuration, and was turned
into a blockier looking turret as a result of
using vertical steel perforated armour; it already
had been much more voluminous than the turret of a
Leopard 1 because of a large internal ammunition
storage locker in the rear. The Leopard 2 thus
initially used perforated armour but not Chobham
armour as often claimed. PT-14 used the 120 mm
Rheinmetall gun (as eventually did the U.S.
Abrams). After this two new prototype hulls and
three turrets were ordered, one (PT-20) mounting
the original L7A3 105 mm gun and a Hughes fire
control system, a second (PT-19) with the same
fire control system but able to "swap out" the gun
for the 120 mm Rheinmetall design (it was indeed
so changed by the Americans), and one more (PT-21)
mounting the Hughes-Krupp Atlas Elektronik EMES 13
fire control system, with the 120 mm gun.
Tags : leopard tank family greece portugal turkey spain tracks battle training krauss maffei wegmann du 138 armour |
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