German Leopard 2 Tank - Leopard 2 Tank is the main battle tank currently in service with German army, it is developed as a successor of Leopard 1 Tank. The design and development the Tank which should be capable to work in any terrain and atmosphere and have world class firepower is started in 1972 and finally Leopard 2 Tank put into production in 1979. Leopard 2 Tank Considered being the most advance and lethal tank in the world. Which is near perfect blend of the Armor, Mobility and Firepower a tank can get.
Armor Protection - Leopard 2 Tank uses spaced, multi-layered composite armor throughout the design. The Leopard 2 A5 and A6 models have additional armor added to the turret front, and on the hull and side skirts. The estimated protection for the Leopard 2 range from 940 mm on the turret, 620 mm on lower front hull against kinetic projectiles and Sabot round. The mine-protection plate for the belly of the Leopard 2 A6 is also provided to protect it against anti-tank mines and improvised explosive devices. The Leopard 2 A6 armored is sloped on such an angle that it make the Rpg-7 projectile to bounce off the surface and also provide extra protection against Armor piercing and discarding round as it have to go through increased mass of armor when it is slanted at the extreme angles. Moreover Leopard 2 Tank is also provided with 76 mm smoke mortars and Infrared- decoys mounted on either side of the turret which can be electrically fired either as single rounds or in salvos of four to create a smoke screen and Infrared masking for providing the stealth to Leopard 2 Tank in case of close quarter battle with other tanks. The crew is also protected against Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) threats, as the Leopard 2 is equipped with a pressurized and sealed crew compartment which saves the crew from the threats from the outer atmosphere of the tank. The upper part of the tracks of Leopard 2 Tank is covered with side skirts, with the first two road wheels and idler covered by an armored skirt. The Leopard 2 is also equipped with an automatic fire protection system which uses fire extinguisher bottles which are triggered automatically by the fire detection system when temperatures rise above 82°C inside the fighting compartment.
Mobility - The Leopard 2 is propelled by the turbocharged diesel engine, which provides 1,500 horsepower of engine output. The diesel engine of Leopard 2 is a 4 stroke ,V 12 (12 cylinder) multi-fuel, liquid-cooled engine, which has an estimated fuel consumption rate of around 300 liters per 100 km and Leopard 2 is coupled to the Automatic transmission which has has 4 forward, 2 reverse gears. The Leopard 2 has 4 fuel tanks, which have a total capacity of approximately 1,160 liters, giving a maximum road range of about 500 km. The propulsion pack of Leopard 2 is capable of driving the Leopard 2 to a top road speed of 68 km/h .The engine and transmission is separated from the crew compartment through a fireproof Blast doors. The Leopard 2 has a torsion bar suspension to provide it cross-country mobility and easy to change and repair than hyro-numetic suspension. Leopard 2 is also provided with rubber pads on the tracks and layer of rubber on its wheels, which help in decreasing vibration of the main chassis generated through the friction between tracks and wheel metal surface and this provide stable platform for the firing of main gun and crew comfort .The Leopard 2 can drive through water 4 meters deep using a snorkel .The German Army has prioritized mobility in its Leopard 2 which is considered the fastest MBT in existence.
Firepower - Leopard 2 Tank is provided with 120 mm smoothbore main gun which is designed by Rheinmetall AG of Germany, this is the same gun used in M1 Abrams main battle tank of United States , Being a smoothbore gun it have an advantage long endurance because rifled gun’s got worn out after firing few hundred rounds but this problem is solved using Smoothbore gun moreover smoothbore gun in Leopard 2 and also make Leopard 2 suited to fire more variety of shells then the rifled one. The main gun of Leopard 2 is can fire variety of High Explosive Anti-Tank Round, Kinetic Energy Sabot Round , Armor Piercing and Discarding Round. The main gun of The Leopard 2 is controlled by fire control computer which uses Infrared beam and other sensors to acquire data regarding range finding and Target acquisition to process and make sure the round fired from the main 120 mm guns hits on target. The main gun of Leopard 2 is Tank is electrically stabilized with the main chassis of the tank, that mean even if the tank is moving over the rough surface gun will be still stabilized on its target to fire the round with near accuracy to hit on target. The Leopard 2 is equipped with two secondary 7.62 machine guns; one mounted co-axially Mg on turret, the other on an anti-aircraft gun mounted near commander hatch.
Limitation's- The only disadvantage of the Leopard 2 is that it never been tested against the worthy competitor in a real war scenario else than that it’s a world best balance between Armor, Firepower and Mobility
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