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The German Leopard 2 main battle tank was born, and even Putin the Great had to touch his Mediterranean hairstyle and was afraid, so how tough is the Leopard 2 tank as the number one? And how was it born?
German Leopard 2 main battle tank
After Hitler launched World War II, the army of Nazi Germany was like a sharp knife that pierced the heart of the world, putting the world in danger of collapse, as can be seen from Germany's blitz against Poland. Germany's strength is naturally due to its military fist as big as a sandbag, and its air, land, and sea power are at the top of the world pyramid.
And the king on land: tanks, Germany also has the famous Leopard 2 series, this series of tanks even if put in the present, is not outdated top existence, it can be said that Putin the Great has to give three points when he sees it. So what was its origin as a rising star in the main battle tanks that helped the German army sweep across the continent?
After World War I, Germany was in a very awkward position, with the two hegemons of Britain and France in the west and the Soviet Union in the east. Embattled, Hitler was born. This war maniac had a foresight and saw the clanging of German poverty, but fortunately the industrial level was still there, so he wanted to start a war in the name of seeking bread and milk for the German people, so as to restore Germany's former status as a great power.
The Panther main battle tank began to quietly metamorphose at this time, the Panther tank was first developed and finalized by Nazi Germany in 1941, and began to be put into the battlefield in the late World War II in 1943, and remained in service until the end of World War II, it can be said that the Panther tank is the last struggle of the German army before defeat.
The performance of the Panther tank in World War II was like a big killer on land, over the mountains, invincible, helping Germany to take a breath, and this is only the predecessor of the Leopard 2 main battle tank. Although Germany ultimately lost World War II, the shock of the Panther tank in the war was indeed real, and it was a powerful enemy of the Soviet Union's steel torrent. After World War II, it was not discontinued, but has been improved and developed, and continues to this day, which is a classic that cannot be copied in tanks.
Development of the Leopard 2 tank began in the 1960s, when West Germany and the United States were working on an MBT-70/KPZ70 program, and the technical source of the Leopard 2 was this program. In 1970, the program ended because it did not meet the requirements of the two militaries.
At that time, the predecessor of the Leopard 2, the Leopard 1 tank, had just been launched. At this time, Germany, with its new technology, naturally began to think about the development of new components for the Leopard 1 tank to improve its performance. In 1968, Germany's Klaus Maffei was awarded a contract worth 25 million Deutsche Mark to develop a new tank that far exceeded its previous performance, and this was the opportunity for the Leopard 2 tank.
In 1969, Germany used new technology and components of the MBT-70 tank to develop a test tank called the Wild Boar. In order to solve the biggest problem in the MBT-70 program - the driver sat on the turret, Germany later developed a new experimental tank called the Boar on this basis, the tank driver sat on the hull, and the treatment suddenly rose to the imperial level, but unfortunately this tank has only one wooden model. Finally, after the failure of the German-German plan, the Germans, who could not bear it, made the decision to develop the Leopard 2 tank.
Leopard 1 main battle tank
Because the Leopard 2 tank hardware is very strong, so Germany is very fond of, on the one hand, in order to show, on the other hand, but also to test the performance of the Leopard 2 tank, Germany carried out component system technology tests from 1972 to 1974, winter test in Canada in February 1975, and test in the desert of Yuma, United States in April 1975.
In many experiments, the Leopard 2 road traveled 34,531 kilometers, and the undulating road traveled 27,472 kilometers. In terms of transmission, Germany has repeatedly tested the balance elbow, load wheel and suspension system of the Leopard 2, and the driving performance test of the light friction shock absorber has been carried out in 10 years for 69,000 kilometers.
In terms of turret weapons, Leopard 2 fired a total of 3742 105mm shells and 1667 120mm shells, so many shells were fired, it is estimated that the local air quality monitoring agency will call the good guys.
So the Leopard 2 main battle tank, as the existence that Putin the Great is also afraid of in today's Russian-Ukrainian situation, what about its hard power?
The Leopard 2 main battle tank, which Putin the Great is also afraid of, where is its strength reflected, and is its configuration worthy of its name?
To see the strength of the Leopard 2 main battle tank, it is naturally indispensable to understand its own excellent configuration.
On the whole, the Leopard 2 hull is made of clearance composite armor, from front to rear are the cockpit, fighting compartment and power compartment. The body is equipped with 3 observation periscopes, one of which also has a passive function of night vision, so that even if you fight in the dark, you will not lose your fingers, which is convenient for detecting enemy dynamics, and can also better conceal itself.
This periscope has a laser rangefinder and a thermal imaging device, and this technology is thanks to the development of instruments in Texas, USA, and the United States also authorized the German company Zeiss to produce in West Germany, so that the "eyes" of the Leopard 2 were made like the golden eye of fire.
As a tank weapon, machine gun shells are naturally indispensable, there are two kinds of Leopard 2 machine guns, one is Rheinmetall's MG3A1 7.62mm parallel machine gun, this machine gun can fire 1200 bullets a minute, on average can fire 20 bullets a second, it can be said that it comes with a Gatling. Another machine gun is the MG3A1 7.62mm anti-aircraft machine gun, which is designed to protect against air strikes.
Leopard 2 is equipped with a 120mm smoothbore gun, the whole barrel is 5.3m long, under the double buff made of electroslag remelted steel and self-tightening process, the barrel of the Leopard 2 can be very resistant to corrosion and wear, greatly extending the service life of the barrel.
The Leopard 2's standing 120mm smoothbore gun has a tail-stabilized shell-piercing shell and a multi-purpose armor-piercing projectile, both of which, as the name suggests, have extremely strong armor-piercing capabilities and can inflict devastating blows on targets. The DM13 tail-stabilized shell-piercing projectile is the main weapon of the Leopard 2, with a rate of fire of 1.6 kilometers per second and a range of up to 3.5 kilometers.
Another means that the Leopard 2 can be overbearing is its power system, the MB873Ka501 engine of the Leopard 2 has high volume power, can start well and give the Leopard 2 a strong driving force, on the other hand, this engine is also very fuel-efficient, and can achieve 2600 rpm, which is nearly 200 percent higher than the 2200 rpm performance of the Leopard 1.
This engine allows the Leopard 2 to rampage the battlefield like chicken blood, and the only fly in the ointment is that the Leopard 2's ring radiator consumes more than other tanks.
Speaking of the transmission of the Leopard 2, the transmission of the Leopard 2 benefits from the technical achievements of the joint development of the MBT-70 tank by Germany and the United States, called HSWL 345 hydromechanical transmission, which gives the Leopard 2 extremely high mobility, which can flexibly forward, reverse and brake.
Finally, an excellent battlefield god of war, naturally can not only have brute force, the necessary defense is also an important factor to measure the performance of the tank.
The front end of the Leopard 2 hull is sharp, and side skirts have been added to strengthen the front of the tank without adding too much weight. On both sides of the body, there are 3 toolboxes, which have a skirt function, which greatly improves the protection of the front arc area of the Leopard 2. To talk about the natural enemies of the tank, the mine is also considered the previous one, in order to cope with the mine, the sides of the bottom of the Leopard 2 hull were inclined forty-five degrees, and the chassis was reinforced.
The designers of the Leopard 2 also considered the problem of anti-secondary effects after being shot, which made the Leopard 2 almost immune to ordinary armor-piercing bullets, and it undoubtedly required very powerful firepower to destroy the Leopard 2.
In addition, the Leopard 2 turret is equipped with a set of smoke grenade launchers on both sides of the rear to facilitate the implementation of more flexible tactics.
Such a fully armed leopard 2 is undoubtedly a big treasure in the eyes of military madmen, so as of the end of the 20th century, leopard 2 was also put into use by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Singapore and other countries, which is also the origin of the interesting name of leopard 2 "European leopard".
After appreciating the excellent performance of Leopard 2, I believe that friends only have a vague impression, and there is still a lack of intuitive feelings for the real strength of Leopard 2, so if Leopard 2 and the top tanks in the world make a "Huashan sword" and compare them together, then what will be the ending? In the end, how many chairs can Leopard 2 sit in the world?
The Leopard 2's own quality is so good, so if the Leopard 2 main battle tank is pitted against the world's top tanks, what will be the result?
The first tank to appear, known as the world's "king of tanks" and "mobile fortress", is the American M1A3 main battle tank.
This tank shined in the war between the United States and Iraq, and this tank undoubtedly left a deep psychological shadow on the people of the Middle East, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a land boss.
M1A3 main battle tank
In terms of configuration, the M1A3 plus the barrel, the total length reaches a frightening 10.2 meters, and the weight is as high as 62 tons, which shows how luxurious its configuration is. However, although it is heavy, the M1A3 is not stupid at all, it travels at 65 kilometers per hour, but the German Leopard 2a7 tank travels faster than the M1A3, reaching 72 kilometers per hour.
The M1A3 has a fuel capacity of 2,000 liters and a range of 270 km, while the Leopard 2A7 can reach a maximum range of 550 km, which is twice as long as the M1A3.
The M1A3 also uses a 120mm smoothbore gun, but its firepower includes four types of tail stabilized shell-piercing shell shell shell , armor breaking shell , grenade grenade , artillery launched missile , etc. , which is more comprehensive than that of the Leopard 2.
The M1A3's armor-piercing projectile can penetrate 850 mm thick homogeneous steel armor from 2 kilometers away, which is more terrifying than the Leopard 2. Most terrifyingly, the M1A3 can also launch the Hellfire M-type gun-launched missile, which has a long reputation for hitting fast and accurate, far and ruthless.
The body of the M1A3 main battle tank is equipped with composite ceramic armor, and the body is also coated with black technology wide-spectrum camouflage coating to prevent visible light, infrared and millimeter wave detection.
The Leopard 2A7 is equipped with a modular armor kit, which is not only hard enough but also light, which is why the Leopard 2A7 can run faster and farther than the M1A3. The Leopard 2A7 thus has a very powerful anti-armor and anti-tank missile capability. The Leopard 2A7 is also equipped with the AMAP-ADS automatic defense system, which can effectively intercept the enemy. So in terms of protection, the Leopard 2A7 is stronger than the M1A3.
In the Iraq War, the United States with the predecessor of M1A3 - M1A1 main battle tank, all the way to sweep three times its own number of Iraqi tanks, you know, Iraq was a desperate fight at that time, the tank used is not a cat and a dog, but the Soviet Union's famous T-72 main battle tank, even so, it is no match for the United States, a terrifying military power. It shows the gold content of M1A1. And M1A3, as an improved version of M1A1, its strength is already unimaginably terrible.
Comparing the Leopard 2 with the world's strongest tank M1A3, the two sides can also have each other, which shows that the performance of the Leopard 2 is undoubted.
At present, the most advanced tank in China should be the 99A main battle tank, which uses a 125mm smoothbore gun, which is more powerful than the Leopard 2 in terms of firepower.
99A main battle tank
For protection, the Type 99A tank uses all-welded steel armor, and an improved version of composite armor is added on the outside. Not only that, but in addition to these two layers of passive defense armor, the continent has also added explosive reactive armor that can actively defend.
This reactive armor is directly installed on the main armor in the form of a single piece, the main function is to resist anti-tank guided missiles and rockets, once the target is detected, the explosive reactive armor will explode in advance before the missile hits the tank, thereby reducing the destructive effect of anti-tank weapons, very overbearing.
So the mainland's 99A is not inferior to the Leopard 2 in terms of defense.
However, although the 99A main battle tank is a hexagonal warrior, it cannot find any shortcomings, but it also leads to the lack of special outstanding places in the 99a.
Compared with the Leopard 2, the biggest disadvantage of the 99A is the lack of versatility, which means that the components of the Type 99 tank are no longer suitable for the Type 99A tank, because the performance of the latter is much improved compared to the former.
The German Leopard 2, the upgrade is smoother, the parts of the scrapped Leopard 2 tank can still be used in other Panther tanks, which undoubtedly saves a certain amount of manpower and financial resources.
After comparing the Leopard 2 with the American M1A3 and the mainland's 99a, it is not difficult to find that the United States, as a military power, is indeed not to be underestimated, although the Leopard 2 is strong, but it is still slightly inferior to the American tank king M1A3. The mainland's 99A is ranked third in the world's tanks in Germany's "Focus" magazine, and has been able to compete with the first M1A3 and the second Leopard 2 tank, which shows the brilliant military achievements made by the mainland in recent years.