KMW has been pretty busy lately. Not to the level of BAE (which really might be from the fact that BAE is a collection of companies and not one single entity) but they've been busy none-the-less.
Still this latest offering is curious.
Over the years we've seen the super long barreled Leopard 2A6, and the Peace Support Operations Leopard. With the 2A7+ we see them returning to the PSO variant, dropping the long barrel, adding machineguns and bolt on armor and the now common dozer blade.
I'm not sure if this is really qualifies for a new model designation or not. It seems to be more inline with what the US Army did a couple of years ago with its TUSK upgrade.
| Leopard 2A7+ Specifications (From the KMW Website) | ||
| Weight | 67.5 t | |
| Length (gun at 12 o'clock) | 10.97 m | |
| Width | 4.00 m | |
| Height (turret roof) | 2.64 m | |
| Engine power | 1,100 kW (1,500 hp) | |
| Maximum speed | 72 km/h | |
| Cruising range | 450 km | |
| Armament
|
120 mm / L55 smoothbore
cannon and 12.7 mm MG oder 40 mm granade launcher 7.62 mm coaxial MG | |
The PSO was really an upgrade of the A5 and A6, "TUSKed" as it were, while the A7 is a factory fresh PSO-Leopard. All the bells and whistles such as the Battlefield Management System are better integrated instead of just added extras.
ReplyDeleteThe choice for a standard L55 barrel is an interesting development, as it is the better choice for canister/shotgun rounds as opposed to Warp-speed APFSDS armor crushers.
There's really no serious interest for the previously much vaunted 140mm super tank gun anymore.
There's still a serious need for a main battle tank, even in COIN/MOUT ops, but I'm wondering if the Leo will be the last of its kind, as Germany is facing radical reductions and global defense budgets in general are dropping like meteors.
very heavy, a new engine would be appropriate
ReplyDelete