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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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Durée : 384 s |
| Leopard 9A581 GM |
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This hopefully will be my last Leopard video
(as there are no more betas.) This video
highlights supported sound, wireless cards,
and graphics cards.
Tags : leo gui pc 9a581 gm |
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Affichage : 19895
Durée : 192 s |
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