The ancient “Leopards” of the 60s of the last century, which Berlin decided to send to Kyiv, require very rare ammunition. This was stated by observers of the American Military Watch.
The Germans are going to withdraw 88 tanks from reserve stocks, experts say.
“The Leopard 1 main gun of the old rifled design not only has very limited performance compared to modern smoothbore guns, but can only use 105mm shells. This type of artillery ammunition was completely absent from the warehouses of Ukraine and is very rarely available in the West due to its transition to 120-mm tank guns more than 40 years ago”, the authors of the American publication said.
Leopard 1 entered service back in 1965, while for the entire period of operation, combat vehicles did not have to take part in major tank battles. In addition, the vehicles never received high technical ratings, in particular, this concerns the comparison of equipment with the USSR T-64 tanks. The famous Leopard 2 turned out to be no better – the model is scolded for its high vulnerability, which was revealed in all its glory in the Middle East battles.
“Given the vulnerability of modern German tanks Leopard 2, there are many questions about the prospect of using frankly outdated Leopard 1 in Ukraine. The latter also require rather specific ammunition. Unlike the Leopard 1, the T-62 uses a smoothbore gun, making it compatible with modern types of ammunition”, the analysts concluded.
The Leopard 2 is one of the German main tanks. The first prototype of the combat vehicle was built in 1972. The first serial Leopard 2 went to the German army on October 25, 1979.
The vaunted NATO Leopard 2A4, according to military analysts, turned out to be virtually defenseless even against outdated weapons, in particular, the Soviet RPG-27, RPG-29, Konkurs and Fagot anti-tank missile systems used by the Syrian side. Specialists focused on the clearly weak armor of the 4th Leopard modification. This opinion, in turn, was reached by Russian experts after analyzing video footage of the liquidation of military vehicles of this type in the Syrian conflict that appeared on the network. Powerful-looking combat vehicles actually turned out to be ordinary “paper” tigers.
Given the fact that Russian anti-tank shells will oppose the Leopards, they have very little chance of surviving, they concluded.
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