In the end, the Panzer 68/88 entered service without ERA.

When only the turret or hull were uparmored, the probability of a mission kill was lower against warheads with 600 mm penetration (56% and 64% respectively) and 900 mm penetration (55% and 57% respectivley).

Thus, the 🇨🇭 military recommended installing ERA on both hull & turret.

By 🇨🇭 estimates, a fully up-armored Panzer 68 (ERA on turret and hull) matched the probability of a mission kill of the Leopard 2 against shaped charge warheads with 600 mm penetration (82%) and exceeded it against warheads with 900 mm penetration (75% vs 70%) over the frontal ±30° arc.

An even high post-penetration survivability was achieved when fitting ERA to hull and turret. It was caluclated to be 46% higher against anti-tank guided missiles with 600 mm penetration and 34% higher against ATGMs with 900 mm penetration.

Note that in these cases the armor was still penetrated.

The probability of crew survival against overmatching threats was also calculated. Against missiles with 600 mm penetration, the Panzer 68 was est. to have a 14% higher survivablity when the turret was fitted with ERA; against 900 mm penetrating missile, there was no differrence.

Overall, the Blazer ERA added 950 kilograms of weight, of which 550 kg were added to the turret. However, the desired level of protection was no achieved on the lower hull front, where only 400 mm of steel-equivalent protection could be reached with Blazer.

The required level of protection was somewhat limited; stopping a RPG-7 (requiring an est. 350 mm steel-equivalent protection) over the ±30° frontal arc and the Sagger missile (requiring an est. 520 mm steel-equivalent protection) over the ±15° frontal arc on turret and hull front (not hull sides).

Previously, a passive composite armor package providing protection against both KE projectiles and shaped charge warheads were proposed, but due its excessive weight of ca. 5 tonnes, the program was abandoned in 1986.

Subsequently, the lighter Blazer ERA kit was considered, adding only ~1 tonne.

As part of the Panzer 68 modernization program (which was adopted in form of the Panzer 68/88), the 🇨🇭 Army considered fitting the tank with explosive reactive armor (ERA).

In particular, the 🇮🇱 Blazer system made by Israeli Military Industries (IMI) was evaluated and tested by K+W Thun.

THEON übernimmt die deutsche Kappa Optronics Der griechische Optik-Spezialist THEON International hat heute die Übernahme der Kappa Optronics GmbH (KAPPA) bekannt gegeben – einem in Göttingen ansässigen Spezialisten für elektro-optische Systeme ...

Der griechische Optik-Spezialist THEON International hat heute die Übernahme des in Göttingen ansässigen Spezialisten für elektro-optische Systeme für Luftfahrt und Landanwendungen Kappa Optronics GmbH bekannt gegeben.

www.hartpunkt.de/theon-uebern...

These early illustrations show a potential production variant of the Panther without any Leonardo-made parts.

LRMV will deliver the first two Panther tanks to the 🇮🇹 Army in 2027, a year earlier than initially planned. These two tanks will be in the "international configuration", i.e. lack 🇮🇹-specific changes.

Maybe this was shown in the early illustrations of the Panther shown by LRMV.

That would at least be consistent with the British report stating that Germany claimed no weight increase caused by the new armor packs.

It should be noted, that 3rd generation armor package as planned & developed at the time was to be fully internal and did not include the later add-on modules defining the shape of the later Leopard 2 models.

Even without the add-on armor modules, a 2A5 is more than 2,600 kg heavier than a 2A4.

The light roof armor - both in a passive and a reactive form - was deemed unsuitable, as it was only designed to stop ~40 mm shaped charges (i.e. DPICM and maybe KB44). A heavier solution against the ~60 mm class and EFPs was required.

It was however adopted on export models incl. Strv 122, 2A7Q.

The new armor was designed to provide 650 mm steel-equivalent protection against KE rounds and 1,200 mm against shaped charges. It was developed by the BWB together with Clouth Gummiwerke, Blohm & Voss, IBD and Krauss-Maffei (as OEM most likely).

As per Krauss-Maffei, this would add a total of 2,600 kg to the tank, of which 1,600 kg came from the heavier armor and 800 kg came from the added liner.

Other attendees of the meeting disputed this. This matches contemporary communication with 🇬🇧 that the new armor would not increase the weight.

Some proposed minor changes were a new hatch in the turret bustle floor to allow restocking the turret's ammunition rack from outside, adding a infrantry phone and modifying the ventilation system for the engine.

The most important change with demonstrator was the greatly enhanced protection via adopting third generation special armor, modifying the NBC protection system, reducing noise and thermal signatures and adding a combined spall/anti-radiation liner in the hull.

To improve the controllability, a navigation system, an improved rear view for the driver (via a rear-driving camera) and a guide system for the commander & driver in degraded emergency mode were offered. Additionally, the tank was to be prepared for adopting the IFIS BMS at a later point of time.

Electrical turret and gun drives, better brakes (combining parking brake and service brake in the transmission) and an APU (a small gas turbine mounted in the rear hull sponson) were also offered.

In regards to firepower, the commander's sight was to include a thermal imager & laser rangefinder. Mechanisms to quickly slew to the turret to a vision block & for quickly lowering the commander's seat, and a MRS were to be added.

The MGs were to be modified so they could be operated from inside.

When the "shopping list" (as it was called in a 🇨🇭 report on the meeting) offered by KM was compared to the requirements by 🇳🇱🇩🇪 &🇨🇭, only about 1/4 of the items remained.

KM was offering "everything" without caring about funding, as the 🇬🇧 would only adopt a foreign tank "as is", i.e. already in use.

For the Leopard 2 KWS demonstrator, Krauss-Maffei and other 🇩🇪 industry members suggested a number of possible upgrades to protection, firepower, controllability, reliability and other changes.

During the 🇬🇧 tests, the Leopard 2 performed better than the competition in form of the Challenger 2, upgraded Chieftain &&M1A1 Block II. While the 🇨🇭 documents carefully state that this was the case "in the 🇩🇪 opinion", we also know that from the UK archives that 🇬🇧 Army pushed for the Leopard 2.

While the tactical requirements for the Leopard 2 upgrade, e.g. the KWS, where published in 1988, preceeding studies already started in the 1986, these early activities was only hesitantly advanced.

The 🇬🇧 Chieftain replacement program lead to a push by the industry to develop a demonstrator.

Given how few 🇩🇪 tanks were upgraded and that no 🇨🇭 Panzer 87 was turned into a 2A5/2A6 (rather the development of a different upgrade was started a decade later), the 🇳🇱 got the best out of that deal - as long as we ignore that they later sold off all their tanks.

In 1989, 🇩🇪, 🇳🇱 and 🇨🇭 were still expecting to upgrade all of their Leopard 2 tanks to the 2A6 configuration, resulting in the total program cost (98 million DM) being split based on the size of the respective tank fleets.

Bergepanzerbeschaffung der Bundeswehr – Zweikampf oder doch strategischer Dreikampf? Die jüngsten Ereignisse rund um die aktuelle Bergepanzerbeschaffung der Bundeswehr, bei der zwei an die Ukraine abgegebene Bergepanzer 3 Büffel sowie 21 Bergepanzer 2 ersetzt werden sollen, schlagen h...

Die aktuelle Bergepanzerbeschaffung der Bundeswehr schlägt hohe Wellen. Während sich die Diskussion auf den Kampf eines Mittelständlers gegen einen Großkonzern konzentriert, wird die potenz. strat. Bedeutung des Auftrages für den Panzerbau in Deutschland übersehen.

www.hartpunkt.de/bergepanzerb...

Niederländisches Panzerbataillon wird in Deutschland stationiert Die niederländischen Streitkräfte planen die Beschaffung von 46 Kampfpanzern des Typs Leopard A8, mit denen ein neues Panzerbataillon im niedersächsischen Lohheide aufgestellt werden soll.

Die niederländischen Streitkräfte planen die Beschaffung von 46 Kampfpanzern des Typs Leopard A8, mit denen die niederländische Panzertruppe reaktiviert und ein neues Panzerbataillon im niedersächsischen Lohheide aufgestellt werden soll.

www.hartpunkt.de/niederlaendi...