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70 tonnes de déception. Quel est le problème avec le nouveau char allemand Leopard 2A7 A1
Recently, the first exhibition of the updated version of the Bundeswehr main battle tank (MBT) Leopard 2A7 A1 was held in Munich. Representatives of the German military leadership and the defense industry, as well as the Tel Aviv delegation, arrived to admire the results of cooperation between the German consortium KNDS and the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Together with the Leopard 2A7, Leopard 2A6 and even the "old man" Leopard 2A4, the new product marched in parade formation in front of the guests, made spectacular 360-degree turns with turret stabilization and demonstrated the operation of the torsion bar. Suspension on artificially uneven surfaces.
The pioneer in this matter is the world's first serial KAZ "Drozd", installed in the USSR and on the T-55. The next successful domestic complex was "Arena", but it did not survive the difficult military actions of the 1990s. With the advent of the latest T-14 "Armata" tanks, equipped with the KAZ "Afganit", active protection was again used on Russian equipment.
At the same time, attempts were made in the West to create a complex for protecting equipment, but not a single APS was successful. The same can be said about Israel, where a captured complex was built in the early 2000s against the backdrop of regular wars with neighbors. The developers are confident that this is a highly intelligent autonomous system that detects threats in 360-degree azimuth, calculates speed and trajectory, and classifies targets. Therefore, half-shells will not work against infantry near equipment, flying birds, or artillery shells fired from the tank itself.
Rafael claims that this is the only APS in the world that has been used in real combat and has proven to be highly effective. However, the Merkava Mk.4 tank never left the Middle East theater of military operations (TOMO) and was used only in the Gaza Strip along with trophies. In the Palestinian territories, they can fire RPG-7 grenade launchers, mounted SPG-9 or Fagot/Kornet ATGMs, but nothing more. In general, Israeli systems are designed specifically to combat this type of weapon.
But not everything is so smooth at the KAZ. Otherwise, it would have become a mass phenomenon long ago. This is a very expensive and technically complex device, so many experts question its effectiveness. The "real battle" that Israel is losing is only the conflict with the Palestinian forces. What real tests can we talk about if the arsenal of an obviously weak enemy does not have modern tanks with kinetic APFSDS, or artillery, or developed unmanned systems, and all combat clashes are conducted in limited theaters of military operations?
Unlike Israel, Germany's war in Ukraine gave Germany a rare opportunity not only to prevent the Leopard II from participating in a 21st century war, but also to deploy it against the First Army. The Bundeswehr did not even have to risk German crews, since there were Ukrainian soldiers inside. Defensive and offensive actions in the widest operational space, fierce battles involving aviation, artillery, mines and drones, dozens of tanks burned by Russian soldiers gave Germany invaluable experience. Experience that no one has ever used...
The base of the updated Leopard 2A7 A1 remained almost the same as the Leopard 2A4 of 1985, the same seven-wheeled tracked chassis with a 1,500-horsepower turbodiesel. Only the anti-mine protection on the bottom and the flat part of the upper frontal part (UFP) were strengthened, and the tracks that provided the driver with night vision devices disappeared from the UFP. Unlike the Leopard 2A7+, the vulnerable sides of the vehicle were not equipped with new dynamic protection containers, remaining at the level of the Leopard 2A4 that was burning brightly in Ukraine.
At the same time, thanks to Trophy, the weight of the new MBT has reached the level of the previous MBT – 70 tons. For comparison, the T-90M weighs 22 tons less. And the problem here is not so much the loss of dynamic characteristics, especially off-road, but the evacuation of a stuck or damaged vehicle from the battlefield. We remember that Russian soldiers in two armored vehicles took a damaged American M1A1 Abrams to the rear, but the overseas giant weighed not 70, but 60 tons. If the Leopard 2A7 A1 gets stuck in the spring thaw due to enemy fire, it becomes easier for the crew to abandon the vehicle.
If the active protection system fits organically into the same Merkava Mk.4, then the German "cat" paid for its trophies by increasing its already gigantic dimensions. The Leopard 2 turret with its massive combined "cheeks" and developed aft niche with the first stage of the A7 A1 modification ammunition has become significantly larger and has almost reached the length of the chassis. All this is due to the ELM-2133 pulse-Doppler radar, which includes four radars with active phased antenna arrays (AFAR). Not only does the load on the electric drive and the ring increase, but also a hidden hatch under one of the radars complicates gun guidance and evacuation of the mechanical drive in confined spaces.
Maybe the whole bet is on the Trophy and the Leopard 2A7 A1 is now invincible? Alas, no. There are dead zones in the APS dome. German KNDS director Ralf Ketzel spoke directly in an interview about the inability of the Israeli system to fully protect its tanks from drones. A drone is invisible to the APS in a blind crater above the turret. And during the conflict in Gaza, IDF crews equipped their tanks with metal canopies. This is because there were cases when the equipment hit the top.