The Hungarian contract includes everything needed to introduce an entirely new vehicle to their armed forces, from training to spare parts. Its cost isn't quite applicable to Leo 2 here.
K2's disadvantage regarding Norway is precisely that they don't have to pay for anything beside the upgrade itself if they decide to keep Leopard, while K2 would require expensive changes in crew training and supply management.
Leopard 2's mantlet never became better protected, just smaller, by integrating part of the moving mantlet area from 2A4 into the rigid turret cheeks in 2A5.
Since Leclerc's and K2's cheeks are much lower than their mantlets, this solution isn't available to them. The French never got around to it on their uparmouring projects.
Are you really sure that Turkey will be able to get it done? Russia's economic situation might be bad and progress on Armata glacial at best, but work on Altay is in a much worse state.
Moreover, the Turks are actually developing a domestic powerpack. Funny thing: The company involved is called "British Motor Company" somehow.
Their chances don't look too good if even Korea struggles in that area, but they might not be available as regional parts suppliers. It really seems like the plan was for Poland to assume that role.
Their next president might also make a lot of budget cuts to certain prestige projects, and confuse Altay for one of those.
How much of an advantage is such weight reduction when Norway doesn't deploy its tanks overseas and the even heavier Abrams operates in the tank traversable parts of Norway without issue?
Consider that their Swedish neighbours find no problem in making their Leopards even more obese. They didn't consider Leclerc's lower base weight much of an advantage in trials, either.
Marketing should always be taken with a grain of salt, especially for armaments, but that also applies to Armata, so consider that just the Smart 155 projectile alone is heavier than a whole 12 cm cartridge.
KSTAM might thus not have quite the same penetration power as the artillery shell.
No, they aren't, but limiting oneself to just one option to deal with a threat runs at risk of losing that option soon. What if the Russian military decides to implement an APS with coverage against top attack? Such systems already exist, like AMAP-ADS or APS or whatever the Rheinmetall thing is called.
That would leave only conventional AP projectiles as an option, and there are serious concerns that the 12 cm gun with just those might become less of an option even against newer T-90s. There's a whole history of Russian tank armour being badly underestimated, so it can't hurt to plan for the future early on.
Even the Koreans are working on K3 already, and the Challenger 2 with the 13 cm gun showed that K2 could also accept such a weapon. It already has an autoloader to cope with cartridges too long and heavy for human handling, although the turret would have to be extensively modified to make room for a larger bustle rack, or might need to get its shell replaced entirely, at which point one might as well buy a new tank - unless you're British.
I only read this before joining, and there was nothing about profile pictures in there. Did I miss something?
