An old Leopard 1A5 deposit belonging to a brigade in the Ukrainian army survived at least 8 blows through Russian drones in the first user before 3 explosive drones of FPV ended.
The Russian forces proudly published a video edition of the long bombing, but this is completely intelligent news for the Russians, or the bad news for the Ukrainians.
While losing any Leopard 1A5 is painful for Ukrainian forces who waited more than a year to receive significant numbers of the 1980s-vintage tanks from a German-Danish-Dutch consortium, that one of the Leopards survived a Russian drone swarm means Ukrainian efforts to up-armor the tanks seem to be working.
The 40 -Ton leopard and another 4 people is a quick and convenient tank with exact fireplace controls for its reliable 105 millimeter gun. Its greatest weakness has been its thin armor protection: the fundamental armor of a leopard 1A5 has only 70 millimeters thick in the thickest. A more recent 2A4 leopard has 4 times more protection.
As the first 1A5 leopards, out of at least 155, the consortium has been committed, it began arriving in Ukraine at the end of 2023, the Ukrainians were placed in paintings that address the tanks’ biggest flaw. “The armor disorders have already been solved through Ukrainian engineers,” Ukraine’s ICTV reported.
During the next year, engineers have been adding explosive reactive armor layers, which explodes out when it is hit to divert the incoming rounds. They have also screwed to screens with hinges covered with networks that can catch FPV drones before attacking.
All complementary armor turns out to have the 1A5 leopard that recently ate up to 11 Russian drones. After repeated successes, the tank has still controlled to move, just to be hunted through more drones. Finally immobilized, the tank was probably a general radiation after the ninth, tenth or eleventh blow.
We do not know if the 4 team has survived, but there are reasons to be optimistic. For the threat of 105 millimeters of bullets that are cooked in the turret after an enemy blow, the Leopard 1a5 teams only infrequent some of the 42 laps of the tank in the turret: the others are located in the peel.
It is a heavy arrangement. To recharge, the tank “must return to a location,” a charger told a Ukrainian journalist. “Take time. ” The merit is that there are fewer towers to cook, and kill or mutilate the team, when the enemy fireplace penetrates the turret. It is not without explanation why the charger said that he felt “well” in the face of the concept of equipping a 1A5 leopard despite the thin armor of the tank.
After writing off that drone-harried Leopard 1A5—the eighth tank of that model that analysts have confirmed as destroyed—the Ukrainians still have around 90 Leopard 1A5s. Another 50 or 60 are coming soon.
Expect all newly arrived 1A5 leopards to get the complementary armor that supports 8 Russian drones.
Sources:
1. 2S7 pawn
2. ORYX
3. ICTV
4. Wartranslated