Pardus

10mm sponsons?? Are you sure? I mean the fuel cells are right behind it, that would make them vulnerable to be penetrated and ruptured even by regular small arms fire. That can't be right, esp. for a MBT.

Looking at the welding lines in real life the sponson sides look like they were at least 30mm thick.

Btw, does anyone here possess or know the accurate armour protection of the Leopard 2A4 in these areas?:

@Rohrkrepierer

I had a look through the report you sent me, however there's something I don't understand, which is that the DM33 penetration performance changes from 470mm to 480mm between these two charts:

1 hour ago, Rohrkrepierer said:

 

It includes it, but I have much more than that.

Alright, PM me ?

10 hours ago, Rohrkrepierer said:

 

Yes, via PM.

 

Looking for sources on German DM23 ammunition, and the Swiss license produced version of it called "Pfeil Pat 87 Lsp", particularly the dimensioning and weight.
If anyone has any info, please let me know.

Is it this?

5 hours ago, Rohrkrepierer said:

 

Well I got a hold of a Polish ministry of defence research paper that test fired DM33, which came out with 470mm of LOS pen @2km.

Ok, would you be able to share it?

48 minutes ago, Lord_James said:

That's impossible considering the rod isn't 1m long. 

Well that's assuming Lanz Odermatt's equation is 100% applicable to the most recent penetrator designs. 

I mean we have plenty of figures showing penetration past the length of the rod, so...

11 minutes ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

War thunder, eh?

 

Well according to my dude, the DM23 has a penetration of 480mm RHA.

However, my dude gives this value for 60° so it's a few milimeters lower for 0°.

 

But those figures are based on Russian estimates, which if we look at the numbers for the DM53 don't look particularly realistic.

Infact AFAIK the true penetration performance of the DM13 and DM23 (let alone DM33, 43 and 53/63) is still not known.

A current Leopard 2 tanker mentioned 1,000+ mm RHAe LOS penetration for the DM63 through the L/55.

1 hour ago, SH_MM said:

It is 40 mm thick.

 

Yeah the base upper front hull is just 40mm,  but those blocks of armour they added on looked like they were ~50mm thick. But if you measured them at 40mm I'm ofcourse gonna have to bow to that as I only eyeballed it.

7 hours ago, Laviduce said:

To clarify myself, as far as i know the overall mantlet/trunnion KE resistance of the Leopard 2 (B-tech level) is between 250 and 350 mm . That does not mean the mantlet/trunnion has a KE resistance of 350 mm overall necessarily.

I'd expect atleast 350mm RHAe in the center if we're talking 420mm composite + 240mm solid titanium (660mm LOS).

The edges of the mantlet area could present as high a value as 400mm RHAe considering the 240-280mm RHA turret armour behind the 420mm mantlet:

PS: Went and sat in a Leopard 2A5DK today and had the opportunity to eyeball the thickness of the add on armour on the upper hull. These blocks of armour looked atleast 5cm thick, probably more. So the upper hull on the newer leopards is very strong. Also had a good 5 min in the gunners position, and I must say the gunners optics are excellent, extremely crisp (no LCD screen for the gunner in the tank I sat in though). Also noted a small joystick to the right of the gunners control handle, not sure what that was for?

To me 350mm RHAe equivalent seems likely considering the 420mm mantlet + 240mm solid titanium block behind it. 

If the engineers at KM didnt want the mantlet to be a weakspot there's also every reason to believe that they put thicker NERA blocks in there. 

That's indeed a plausible explanation for the Leo crew member listing such a number (eventhough those add on pieces look a lot thicker ), but I don't understand how narid.ru got it so wrong then?

Also I've noticed that there's a form of turret guard spanning across the forward hull top that often seems to be overlooked:

Thanks Laviduce!

I am wondering how they arrived at the 70mm front turret roof?  A leopard crew memeber said it was a 70mm slab of RHA stretching up until around the commander & loaders hatch. And the guy  at narod.ru apparently measured it at that thickness too?

In the tank he measured there doesn't appear to be a spall liner there:

Would be nice to get that one cleared up.

Hello guys, came over from the WT forums after I stumbled upon this site via google whilst searching for material on the Leopard 2 MBT.

I have some questions regarding the top armor of the Leopard, and I created this color map in order to split up each section:

My questions are:

a) did I section things correctly

b) what are the correct thickness values for each section

I read that the front part of the turret roof is 70mm thick angled at 7 deg over at narod.ru and by a former Leo crew member. Furthermore I can visibly see that the upper front hull is some ~10mm thicker than the 30mm thick drivers hatch.

Thanks!