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The Leopard 1 A1 has an all-welded steel hull. The driver is located on the front right of the hull and has a single-piece hatch with three periscopes, the centre one of which can be replaced by an image intensification unit. The turret is of all-cast steel armour and has the commander and gunner on the right with the loader on the left. The commander has eight periscopes for all-round observation, one of which can be replace with an image intensification unit, the gunner has the main sight and a single periscope and the loader two periscopes. A TRP 2A zoom periscope is mounted in front of the commander's hatch and has magnifications of x 4 and up to x 20. The gunner has a TEM 2A rangefinder that can be used in stereoscopic or coincidence modes. It has a magnification of x 16 and is mechanically linked to the main gun. The gunner also has a TFZ 1A telescope mounted coaxially with the main gun that has a magnification of x 8. Above the main armament is a XSW-30-U infra-red / white searchlight which can be stored at the rear of the turret when not required. The engine is housed behind a fireproof bulkhead and is a MTU MB 838 CaM-500 10-cylinder multi-fuel unit developing 830hp at 2,200rpm. There are seven rubber-tyred road wheels with an idler at the front, drive wheel at the rear and four track-return rollers. The first, second, third, sixth and seventh road wheel stations have hydraulic shock absorbers. The steel reinforced rubber skirts increase ballistic protection against HEAT warheads and mitigate the dust cloud that sometimes arises when a vehicle is on the move. The Leopard 1 has an NBC system of an overpressure type and also mounts an automatic fire control system, heater and hull escape hatch. The Leopard 1 can ford to a depth of four metres. The main armament consists of the widely used British 105mm L7A3 rifled tank gun and can fire all standard 105mm tank rounds produced by the UK, USA, Israel, France, Germany and Canada. The 1 A1 carries sixty rounds with forty-two in the hull and eighteen in the turret. According to Krauss-Maffei, the first round hit probability was significantly increased by the fitting of the Krupp-Atlas fire control system. These 1 A1A1 and 1 A1A2 tanks were redesignated 1 A5 (as mentioned later). A 7.62mm MG3 machine-gun (based on the excellent wartime MG42) is mounted coaxially with the main armament and another is mounted on the turret roof for air defence. The tank carries some 5,000 rounds of ammunition for these weapons. It also has four 76mm smoke grenade dischargers mounted on either side of the turret.
The fifth batch of Leopards was built between 1972 and 1974 and included 232 tanks with a cast steel turret with thicker armour (designated 1 A2) and 110 tanks fitted with a welded turret with spaced armour and a wedge-shaped gun mantlet (designated 1 A3). The 1 A2 tanks mainly went to the 6th Panzer Division, which was based in Schleswig-Holstein and trained with the Danish Army. The 1 A3 tanks mainly went to the 10th and 12th Panzer Divisions. The 1A2 / 1A3 had Fahrgestell Nr. 14001 - 14999. The combat weight had risen to 42.4 tonnes. The sixth and final batch were delivered in 1974 and were designated the Leopard 1 A4. This version had the turret from the 1 A3 but received a new integrated fire control system which included the PERI R12 stabilised sight for the commander, EMES 12A1 stereoscopic rangefinder and ballistic computer for the gunner. The new system took up extra space in the turret and so the ammunition load was reduced to 55 rounds with thirteen rounds in the turret. A second round of modernisation occurred between 1975 and 1977 with all those tanks from the first and fourth batches being retrofitted with extra armour from Blohm and Voss, wedged shape gun mantlet and new air intake filters. The designation was changed from 1A1 to 1 A1A1. From 1980 the PZB 200 passive image intensification system entered service with the Bundeswehr and when the Leopard 2 received their thermal imagining system, a significant number of Leopard 1s were fitted with the cast off PZB 200s. Those tanks in the first to fourth batches (1 A1A1) that received them were redesignated 1 A1A2 while those in the fifth batch were redesignated A2A1 (cast turret) and A3A1 (welded turret). No sixth batch tanks received the PZB 200, and these were eventually phased out of service. In the mid-1980s a major upgrade programme for the Leopard 1 was introduced to give it a better chance in taking on the more modern Soviet tanks that had been appearing for sometime (T-64B, T-72B, T-72M1 and T-80B). It was decided that the Leopard 1 would receive a new fire control system (the Krupp-Atlas Elektronik EMES 18 which incorporated a thermal imaging system, laser rangefinder and ballistic computer), new ammunition and a strengthened torsion bar suspension system and shock absorber mountings. In the end, some 1,225 tanks from the first to fourth batches (Leopard 1 A1A1) would be converted, starting in 1987 and the new tank would be designated Leopard 1 A5. The tank was also fitted with a new servo-hydraulic turret control system by SRK. Following this, all Leopard 1s received the new SEM 80 / 90 digital VHF radio. This necessitated a new set of designators, the progression of which are listed below:
Batch | Original Designation | Early 1970s/ 1st Mod | Late 1970s/ 2nd Mod | 1980 PZB 200 | 1980s Upgrade | SEM 80/90 Radio |
1-4 | 1 | 1 A1 | 1 A1A1 | 1 A1A1 1 A1A2 |
1 A1A1 1 A1A2 1 A5 |
1 A1A4 1 A1A4 1 A5A1 |
5 (cast) | - | 1 A2 | - | 1 A2 1 A2A1 |
1 A2 1 A2A1 |
1 A2A2 1 A2A3 |
5 (welded) | - | 1 A3 | - | 1 A3 1 A3A1 |
1 A3 1 A3A1 |
1 A3A2 1 A3A3 |
6 | - | 1 A4 | - | Phased out |
The Leopard 1 was been exported widely and is in service with Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Norway and Turkey. The Netherlands has withdrawn it from service (having bought the Leopard 2 as a replacement) and has passed a number to Greece and Chile. Germany still has some 500 tanks in service, mainly in eastern Germany (the former GDR) with the rest being passed to other countries including Norway (92), Turkey (230), Greece (245) and Denmark (110). All have minor modifications to suit local conditions, for example the Belgium Leopards had the MG3 machine guns replaced with the 7.62mm FN MAG machine gun and the SABCA Fire Control System (adopted by Australia and Canada too). In 1996 Canada decided to perform a major upgrade of their fleet which entailed the fitting of the complete 1 A5 turret by the German company GLS, a subsidiary of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. There are armoured recovery, armoured engineer, bridgelayer, driver training, armoured combat engineer vehicle and Gepard air defence vehicle versions.
(1 A1A1) Hull length: 7.09m. Hull width: 3.41m. Height: 2.76m. Crew: 4. Ground Clearance: 0.44m. Weight: 42,400kg (combat). Ground pressure: 0.88kg/sq.cm. Max speed: 65km/h. Max range (internal fuel): 600km (on road). Armament: 105mm L7A3 rifled gun, 1 x 7.62mm MG3 machine gun coaxial, 1 x 7.62mm MG3 machine gun mounted on turret roof.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Foss, Christopher. 'Leopard wins Greek tank shoot-out' in Jane's Defence Weekly, 31 May 2000, p. 3.
Foss, Christopher. 'Spain selects 120mm L/55 gun to arm its MBTs' in Jane's Defence Weekly, 1 December 1999, p. 12.