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The Leopard 2 Thread


Militarysta

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29 minutes ago, Xoon said:

 

Unless something has changed, Forsvaret does not have any plans to buy a new MBT before the MGCS. Budget issues. 

 

No, for some time now, the plan has been to select a new MBT around 2025. The budget is the reason why it's not happening sooner.

 

Look up Project 9360 on page 13 of this document: https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/7635ac0d48d44fc180fac57f58be7518/faf-2019-2026-english---final.pdf

 

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Only thing considered is buying basically CV90s with 120mm. 

 

 

This option has been discarded.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The German parliament has approved two planned acquisitions of equipment for the German military (every acquisition worth more than €25 million has to be approved by parliament) with a combined worth of €428 millions. One of these contracts is for the upgrade of 101 Leopard 2A6 and Leopard 2A6MA2 to a configuration "similar" to the Leopard 2A7V. Exact upgrades haven't been revealed, aside of that improved optics, new radios and modifications to the FCS (likely for DM11) will be part of it. The upgrade process is to last until 2026.

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1 hour ago, Rico said:

Are they going for Wisent 1 ARV as an upgrade of the NM217?

 

Not sure, but I’m leaning towards ‘no’. According to the future acquisitions document, the scope of the light and medium recovery capacity project will be about 100-250 million NOK or 12-30 million USD, but that sum does not only include the NM217 but also a new light ARV based on the M113. So, unless the Wisent 1 upgrade is very very cheap, I’m thinking that the upgrade will probably be more limited in scope. I’m not sure that the NM217 need the extra capacity of the Wisent 1 upgrade either now that the Wisent 2 is here to take over the heavy recovery missions where the NM217 has struggled.

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http://www.tank-net.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=37096&page=50

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That was Greece with the Leopard 2A6. They shot twenty rounds against a single turret, one of it reached the crew compartment through the (reinforced) gunner's sight area. The composition of the armour was changed, weight increased slightly (IIRC by some 40 kg only), then the armour was capable of resisting said ammo.

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Against Israeli 120 and 125 mm and without the wedge-shaped spaced armor, IIRC.

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The Greek tests were done using the CL-3143 APFSDS made by Israeli Military Industries, which has an approx. 705 mm long projectile and a muzzle velocity of 1,705 m/s when fired from the L/44 gun. It is also known as the M322 APFSDS-T and has been sold to Sweden (Slpprj 95), Italy, Spain and Turkey. Aside of the CL-3143, the CL-3105 HEAT-FS round was utilized, which is also known as the M325 round and is essentially identical to the German DM12 and US M830 HEAT-FS rounds. The sources I have seen do not mention any sort of 125 mm rounds.

I've been looking for the original source on this for ages, short of buying the Greek magazine that detailed some parts of the Hellenic trials, nothing has come up.

Anyone know more about this?

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Scav said:

You sure this isn't a better thread? :P

 

Also, I genuinly hope that add-on package is an april's fools joke 

1)No, as most interesting part of this vehicles is Turkish-made ERA.

 

2) Yes, naked Leo2A4 is better than Leo2A4 with ERA in situation of local conflict with insurgents, everybody knows that.

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1 minute ago, LoooSeR said:

1)No, as most interesting part of this vehicles is Turkish-made ERA.

Just a joke.
 

1 minute ago, LoooSeR said:

2) Yes, naked Leo2A4 is better than Leo2A4 with ERA in situation of local conflict with insurgents, everybody knows that.

I was referring to how it looks, those colours are horrendous.

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According to Polish defence news website Defence24, the project OMBT (Optimizing Main Battle Tank) Leopard 2 is moving along. This is a project from the European Defence Agency (EDA) of the EU, which aims to upgrade all existing Leopard 2A4 tanks within the inventory of its member states to a more modern configuration. Previously it has been reported that KMW is offering the EU to upgrade these tanks to the Leopard 2A7EU configuration and suggested, that the EU should buy all the tanks and then lease them to its member states to simplify contract matters. Apparently the final decision to which version the Leopard 2A4 tanks will be upgraded during the OMBT Leopard 2 program hasn't been made yet. After the OMBT Leopard 2 program, similar programs might be started for other tanks or AFVs within the inventory of EU member states. In May 2019 a number of meetings/conferences between the national defence industries will be held in order to start a cooperation for the OMBT Leopard 2 program between KMW and local companies.

 

Aside of upgrading, improving maintenance and training also is also part of the OMBT Leopard 2 project.

 

KMW has officially announced that it has been contracted to upgrade the 101 Leopard 2A6 tanks of the German mentioned previously in the topic. The exact content of the upgrade remains unknown, but KMW mentions the among others, the fire control system, optics and chassis (maybe including hull applique armor module?) will be improved.

 

On 4/2/2019 at 6:20 PM, Mighty_Zuk said:

Own development. Roketsan is a local armor maker with its own R&D.

 

The question remains how much of it is locally developed. The deals when buying the M60T Sabra and when choosing the K2 Black Panther as base for the Altay tank both included technology transfer.

 

 

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21 minutes ago, SH_MM said:

The question remains how much of it is locally developed. The deals when buying the M60T Sabra and when choosing the K2 Black Panther as base for the Altay tank both included technology transfer.

I don't see the relevance in this question. The technology transfer was done about 15 years ago. Roketsan has shown it can at least make adjustments to existing armor, which takes a great deal of expertise as well. These various ERA modules look nothing like those IMI supplied to them for the Sabra, and eventually every development of any kind of technology at least to some extent bases itself on some hard founded technology.

 

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^additional information: mantlet couldn't be salvaged/saved, they're working on a new one but had a deadline, so instead they put a camo net over the mantlet to cover it up.

This is TVM MIN as indicated by the license plate (Y 907 793)

Spoiler

unknown.png

TVM MAX was Y 907 792:

Spoiler

unknown.png

Y 907 794 was the last 2A4 from 8th batch.

 

If Y 907 792 was indeed MAX (as indicated) then how come an 8th batch, modified 2A4 had B tech internal armour + D-2 add-ons as shown in the Swedish trials?

That would mean they changed the inserts to B tech (huh, cost maybe?) when they did the conversion, or these two tanks were B tech from the start (doesn't make much sense).

There's a third option:

KVT (modified 5th batch), which was converted to IVT, was also "shown" to the Swedes (for the IFIS), perhaps the Leopard 2 "Improved" slide talks about that one?

Seems a bit of a stretch.

 

However, if the TVM indeed did use B + D-2 and was the "German solution" we see in the Swedish comparison, then the improvement in armour might just be down to the add-on and not a better internal armour.

Turret add-on definitely changed, hull one we don't know about.

So, turret was a rather small improvement, but hull was ~80mm on upper hull/roof (82° AoA means you'd only need an additional 11mm RHA for the add-on thickness).

 

Did they mess up with the indicated armour, or does a B tech leopard 2 with add-on reach these numbers?
 

As previously posted in this thread:

Spoiler

2c277d93d0e47.jpg

28mm sandwich + 71mm air + 28mm sandwich @ 65° = ~950mm protection against CE.

Looks quite similar to the wedges for leopard 2A5.

 

2A5 prototypes: 1720mm-1850mm CE protection on turret from 0° front

-950mm from wedge = 800-900mm for main turret armour

B tech requirement: Milan 1 or 600mm+ CE (probably 650-700mm from front)

That leaves 250-100mm which isn't explained, could be due to airgap allowing the jet to disperse more before hitting the main armour.

 

If we assume these armour arrays (or similar ones) were used in the wedges for leopard 2A5  and that the 250-100mm discrepancy can be explained or falls within margin of error, then it does seem plausible that B + D-2 = Leopard 2 "Improved" and that 2A5 uses B tech or a modified version thereof as base armour.

 

Only thing that isn't entirely explainable is the (massively) increased KE protection.... but then again, even small impact angle changes (yawing LRP) can have massive consequences.

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20 minutes ago, Scav said:

but then again, even small impact angle changes (yawing LRP) can have massive consequences.

and if you set SC charge on unoptimal focal distance you can stop jet pretty much by anything, yes, but real firing are main interest, not this "we can protect it from deathstar, but we have one smaaaal condition..."

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8 minutes ago, Wiedzmin said:

and if you set SC charge on unoptimal focal distance you can stop jet pretty much by anything, yes, but real firing are main interest, not this "we can protect it from deathstar, but we have one smaaaal condition..."

Yep, AFAIK they didn't test tandem warheads either, those might stand a much better chance.

They did do real firing tests, but only against 3 different SC warheads and I don't know the difference between the two large ones (third is the Carl Gustav's 81mm charge).

 

Edit: checked again, the first charge is a 165mm charge (CE 165), second is a 143mm charge (CE 143 FFV) and the third is the 84mm charge (not 81mm as I previously said, apologies).

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19 hours ago, Scav said:

Yep, AFAIK they didn't test tandem warheads either, those might stand a much better chance.

They did do real firing tests, but only against 3 different SC warheads and I don't know the difference between the two large ones (third is the Carl Gustav's 81mm charge).

 

Edit: checked again, the first charge is a 165mm charge (CE 165), second is a 143mm charge (CE 143 FFV) and the third is the 84mm charge (not 81mm as I previously said, apologies).

yes CE 143mm - 1000mm RHA, CE 84mm - 420mm RHA, and KE - 700mm, but all this doesn't have any sense because if tank doesnt penetrated with 1000mm level threat and you have 200mm of "unpenetrated LOS" it doesn't mean that you have 1200mm vs CE, which is seems to be the method used in swedish presentation 

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On 4/6/2019 at 12:18 PM, SH_MM said:

KMW has officially announced that it has been contracted to upgrade the 101 Leopard 2A6 tanks of the German mentioned previously in the topic. The exact content of the upgrade remains unknown, but KMW mentions the among others, the fire control system, optics and chassis (maybe including hull applique armor module?) will be improved.

 In 2017 a deal was signed to upgrade 68 Leopard 2 A4, 16 Leopard 2 A6 and 20 Leopard 2 A7 to A7V standard. While only the 68 A4 will be fitted with the L/55A1 because their gun must be changed anyways.
And now there is an additional contract to upgrade 101 A6 an A6MA2 to a standard "similar"1 to the A7V. Together 205 A7V or "alike", further 32 are mothballed to serve as a basis for future modifications like bridge layers.
Any idea what version(s)  the remaining 91 are (328 total -104-101-32) ?

 

 

 

1" 101 Kampfpanzert Leopard 2 der Varianten A6M A2 und A6 sollen auf einen ähnlichen Konstruktionsstand wie der der neuesten Version Leopard 2 A7V gebracht werden. Ziel ist eine Anpassung an den Leopard 2 

    A7V in Bezug auf Bedienung und Logistik. " (BMVg.de). The upgrade aims for an adjustment of the Leopard 2 A7V regarding the handling and logistics - sounds more like a A7V light than a similar standard. The deal

   for the fist 104 A7V was worth 113 million € and I'm still looking for numbers for the current 101 Vehicles since "Ausschussdrucksache 19(12)383" is not puplicly available how it seems.

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5 hours ago, Wiedzmin said:

yes CE 143mm - 1000mm RHA, CE 84mm - 420mm RHA, and KE - 700mm, but all this doesn't have any sense because if tank doesnt penetrated with 1000mm level threat and you have 200mm of "unpenetrated LOS" it doesn't mean that you have 1200mm vs CE, which is seems to be the method used in swedish presentation 

Possibly, not sure how exactly they measured it but I think it's reasonable to estimate protection if they took efficiency or remaining armour "type" into consideration.

Right now we don't know ofcourse, but I personally doubt they made major mistakes like assuming steel = NERA/whatever the composite uses or that remaining LOS = remaining protection.

 

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