Not quite hillbilly armor but additional armor is being added to Leopard MBTs in Ukraine via Reddit

 

Soldiers/Marines on the battlefield will tell you where the threat is coming from which makes this so interesting.

Earlier we saw "cope cages" being used by both sides to combat the use of loitering drones.

Now?

Now the Ukrainians are adding extra armor to the turret front and sides of the Leopard MBTs.

That's telling.

Many, including several people I follow on Twitter that know armor have listed the Leopard MBT as the best tank in the world.

I always considered it European bias (they're mostly European) but it was held so widely that I thought I might have been missing something.

I wasn't.

The Leopard leaned too heavily toward mobility at the expense of protection.

That's another thing.  The Abrams, Leopard and Challenger (to include the Leclerc) were all built during the cold war.  The Abrams and Challenger can both be considered "multi-role" with the Abrams (IMO) being a jack of all and the Challenger (IMO) leaning more heavily towards being a "defensive tank" (heavy armor, limited mobility...it can take a beating but stay in the fight).

The French and the Leclerc always struck me as being more of an "expeditionary" tank with a nod towards ops in Africa/overseas.

But the Leopard?  It was always a curiosity to me.  The Germans built a tank that was built for a modern day blitzkrieg.  Fast as hell, hard hitting but armor not the best.  

The pyramid will get its pound of flesh.  If you lean too heavily towards one side then it better be firepower (which includes sensors etc..) or armor (if you can't shoot first you better be able to take a punch).  But mobility?  That's so Desert Storm.  Dead as disco.