During the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army, the video of a Leopard 2 tank "Leopard killed" Zaporozhye was released by the Russian side and became popular all over the world. So the German side hurriedly came out to make amends, saying that the Russian army bombed not the Leopard 2 tanks supported by Germany, but Ukrainian agricultural combine harvesters, and the Russian army was spreading rumors.
At the beginning, our domestic military fans couldn't believe it when they heard the news that the Russian army had just started the war and destroyed a Leopard 2 tank. Everyone is wondering if the Russian side is lying, and some people really believe the German side.
Leopard 2 tank
Until Russia released the video, people found that the destroyed tank turret was rectangular, not the pot lid head of the Soviet-style tank, and the scope was also buried deep into the turret, so that the turret had a gap, so everyone dared to determine that this wave of bombed was indeed the German Leopard 2 tank.
For some friends who do not understand military equipment, they are probably thinking, isn't it that the Russian army came up and destroyed a tank, is this a big deal? Since some friends do not understand the performance status of this tank in the world tanks, and the significance of the Russian army destroying it, we will first give you a brief science popularization of how powerful the Leopard 2 tank is.
The "Leopard 2 Family" series of tanks was built by the Federal Republic of Germany during the Cold War of the last century and was one of the most advanced tanks in the world.
In today's world, the most advanced tanks are mainly the fourth-generation main battle tank T14 of the Damaojia, and then among the three generations of main battle tanks, the most powerful ones are Germany's Leopard 2A7, the United States' M1A2SEP, the UK's "Challenger 2", and the mainland post-launch 99A.
IV generation tank T14
However, although Da Mao's T14 is the latest generation, because the technology is not mature enough, and the cost of a single vehicle is too high, it is not capable of large-scale production and application to the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield with Da Mao's current economic scale. Now the main forces of tanks on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield are T90M and T72B3 main battle tanks.
As the so-called "the tiger is not in the mountain, the monkey is the hegemon", so now the world's main battle tanks mainly rely on three generations of tanks, and the Leopard 2 series, which is second to none in the three generations of tanks, has become the focus of attention. Especially from the Leopard 2A4 in the 90s to the current Leopard 2A7, these generations of "Leopard 2 family" tanks have long been regarded as the king of three generations of tanks.
M1A2
Of course, because of the existence of the American M1A2 series, the throne of their three generations of tank kings is not so stable, but it does not prevent them from still being the kings of every era. Our 99A is not allowed to be exported, so it has not been tested in actual combat, and the outside world knows less about it, so it is not sure whether it is the first in strength, but still admits that it is one of the most powerful main battle tanks in the world.
So how powerful is the most powerful Leopard 2A7 in the "Leopard 2 family" now? It is best known for its stability of the fire control system and its unique observation system. The stability of the "Leopard 2 family" is consistent, once the Germans did such an experiment, poured beer into a glass, then put it on the Leopard 2 barrel, and then drove the tank, and then not a drop was spilled during the entire driving process.
As for the Leopard 2's observation system, there are few opponents in the world. Modern tanks detect the enemy situation to open fire engagement, often at a distance of about 3 kilometers, but the Leopard 2 with the advanced thermal imaging equipment in the observation system, as well as the laser rangefinder, can sweep to the target 9 kilometers away, and the error is extremely small, often can seize the opportunity and preemptively.
Like our 99A is also quite an excellent main battle tank, the maximum measurement range of the observation system is about 5 kilometers, and it is easy to be locked by the Leopard 2 first. But we also have our own rear advantage, because there is a laser suppression system on the 99A, the enemy tank locks us, first we need to fire laser ranging to us, but then we can lock the opponent's laser, calculate the direction distance of the opponent's laser, and reflexively send out shells after locating the source. But regardless, the advantages of the Leopard 2 are beyond doubt.
Zelensky (left) and Scholz (right)
Of course, the Leopard 2 still has many strong points, such as its large-caliber barrel, or Rheinmetall's shells, there is too much to say, I will not explain them in detail here. It is precisely because it is the king of land warfare in the world that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Germany to tell his grandfather and grandmother, asking Germany to support the Ukrainian army's tank.
But even if Zelensky begged for about a year, German Chancellor Scholz did not speak, until Zelensky asked for M1A2 and the British "Challenger" from the United States, Scholz agreed to support two tank battalions in Ukraine, a total of about 88 Leopard 2A6 tanks, while Germany also allowed other countries equipped with "Leopard 2" tanks to support the Ukrainian army.
Although the Leopard 2A6 is not as good as the latest Leopard 2A7, it is not much different. It's just that the internal electronic system is slightly backward, there is no remote-controlled weapon system, and the ability to change the armor of the module is lacking. But these do not have much impact on the armor-piercing ability and protection ability of the Leopard 2, but the operation is more humane and slightly reduces the combat damage rate.
Because the performance of the Leopard 2A6 is still advanced enough, it is easier to suppress the relatively backward Russian T72. On the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, only the fourth-generation tanks T14 and T90M can compete with it and wrench the wrist. But as we said earlier, because the T14 is expensive, the T90M is its main rival.
T90M
But compared with the T90M, the Leopard 2A6 is slightly better than the maneuvering flexibility, the power of the main gun, or the fire control system and the battlefield situational awareness, and only the two are half a pound and eight taels in terms of protection performance. Therefore, the Leopard 2A6 is regarded by many as the nemesis of the Russian army. So in Zelensky's opinion, Leopard 2 is coming, and Qingtian has it! Even the Siberian Union of Entrepreneurs in Russia offered a bounty, and as long as a front-line soldier killed a Leopard 2, he was rewarded with 5 million rubles.
But what is shocking is that the legendary Leopard 2 tank was blown up by the Russian army only a few days after the war. So when the news first came out, military fans at home and abroad did not easily believe it for a while. After it was finally determined that it was indeed destroyed, everyone began to ridicule that the reason why Germany called the Leopard 2 a combine harvester was probably because it was afraid that it would lose too quickly and be robbed of sales in the international arms market by M1A2.
Since the Leopard 2 was reimbursed too quickly, some people began to wonder if the reputation of the Leopard 2 had a lot of bragging elements? There is a saying, the Leopard 2A6 is still very powerful, in fact, this time the Russian army bombed the Leopard 2A4, although this tank is also the hegemon of an era, but it is a product of the 90s of the last century.
It's just that because some blindly supporting the Ukrainian military fans spread the news, as the news spread more and more, the original news that the Leopard 2A6 was the nemesis of the Russian tank spread to the entire "Leopard 2 family" is the nemesis of the Russian T90M tank. So naturally the reimbursement of one model of tank leads to the "back pot" of the entire family, and here the credit of the "black friends" is indispensable.
But whether it is Leopard 2A4 or Leopard 2A6, it is good that it is the Leopard 2 family, so no matter who the Russian soldiers destroy, they can have a 5 million reward. So who is the lucky soldier who got 5 million this time? Because the Russian army did not announce specific details, everyone is now analyzing the "real culprit" that led to the "leopard death" of Leopard 2.
First of all, the biggest possibility, according to the video released by the Russian army, around the killed tanks, 10 armored vehicles were lined up along a long snake formation, including 4 Leopard 2 tanks. It is estimated that the scale is too large, and the movement is too large, so after the Russian army found out, it mobilized the rear artillery to use red earth precision-guided artillery shells and gave the Ukrainian army a heavy artillery.
The second possibility is that it was blown up by a landmine. Because the area where Leopard 2 was destroyed was planted with a large number of mines. Judging from the video, the Ukrainian army seems to be aware of this, so it directly lined up along the long snake array and drove on the trail for reconnaissance. But later after being discovered by the Russian army, the commander of the Ukrainian armored vehicle estimated that he panicked, hurriedly turned to escape, and then was forced to break directly into the minefield.
The third possibility, it is estimated that the Ukrainian F16 fighter was not in place, and therefore did not seize air supremacy, so after being discovered by the Russian armed helicopter, it was directly killed by a missile.
So now the 5 million reward may be either a Russian artilleryman or pilot, or an unknown mine. But no matter who it is, Zelensky's political accounts are always too ugly, and the big counteroffensive that has been prepared for a long time actually turned around and ushered in a fiasco, which really affected the subsequent morale. If the follow-up F16 is also hammered, it will be fun.