Leopard on Bridging
The Leopard is a tank designed and produced by Porsche in Germany that first entered service in 1965. It is a fairly conventional tank, armed with a German-built version of the British L7 105mm gun.
In total 6,485 Leopard tanks have been built, of which 4,744 were battle tanks and 1,741 were utility and anti-aircraft variants, not including 80 prototypes and pre-series vehicles. Mobility was the priority while firepower came second; armour was seen as less essential, as it was believed no real protection against hollow-charge weapons was possible anyway.
The Leopard 1A5 upgrade (on which the Canadian C2 above is based) came from the 1,339 vehicles of the Leopard 1A1A1 model. The turrets were again modified for the 1A5, with a larger section at the back, both in order to store all of the new equipment, as well as to move more of the ammunition into the rear turret, as opposed to the left side of the driver where it had traditionally been stored. The storage locker extended the turret almost to the rear of the tank when the gun was facing forward as you can clearly see here.
The Leopard tank could also be fitted with bolt-on lexan armour panels, which have increased the effectiveness of the armour. These "modified" tanks have proved themselves in the field. The first modified vehicle was delivered in early 1987. Since then almost all users of the Leopard 1 have also applied similar changes to their own vehicles, and in most ways the 1A5 can be considered the "standard" Leopard 1 today - Wikipedia.
Some of Canada's C2s were further upgraded and saw service in Afghanistan.
This one is seen crossing a span of what appears to be an AVLB-laid bridge, in the display arena at the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, where it was being used in a small war-game demonstration of armour in action.
Leopard on Bridging
The Leopard is a tank designed and produced by Porsche in Germany that first entered service in 1965. It is a fairly conventional tank, armed with a German-built version of the British L7 105mm gun.
In total 6,485 Leopard tanks have been built, of which 4,744 were battle tanks and 1,741 were utility and anti-aircraft variants, not including 80 prototypes and pre-series vehicles. Mobility was the priority while firepower came second; armour was seen as less essential, as it was believed no real protection against hollow-charge weapons was possible anyway.
The Leopard 1A5 upgrade (on which the Canadian C2 above is based) came from the 1,339 vehicles of the Leopard 1A1A1 model. The turrets were again modified for the 1A5, with a larger section at the back, both in order to store all of the new equipment, as well as to move more of the ammunition into the rear turret, as opposed to the left side of the driver where it had traditionally been stored. The storage locker extended the turret almost to the rear of the tank when the gun was facing forward as you can clearly see here.
The Leopard tank could also be fitted with bolt-on lexan armour panels, which have increased the effectiveness of the armour. These "modified" tanks have proved themselves in the field. The first modified vehicle was delivered in early 1987. Since then almost all users of the Leopard 1 have also applied similar changes to their own vehicles, and in most ways the 1A5 can be considered the "standard" Leopard 1 today - Wikipedia.
Some of Canada's C2s were further upgraded and saw service in Afghanistan.
This one is seen crossing a span of what appears to be an AVLB-laid bridge, in the display arena at the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, where it was being used in a small war-game demonstration of armour in action.