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| Main Battle Tank (MBT) Leopard 2A4 in Spain |
International Military - According to published information, on June 5, Spain approved the delivery of 40 Leopard 2A4 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) to Ukraine. As a reminder, since the start of the war there, Spain has provided 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid worth more than €150,000. Which includes 54 pallets of medicines and medical equipment, while Spain also supplies weapons there.
Such as, 1,370 Instalaza C-90 anti-tank grenade launchers, a number of submachine guns, and 700,000 rounds as well as one RG-31 Nyala 4x4 mine-resistant armored vehicle in an ambulance configuration. And now Spain is ready to step up its military assistance to Ukraine against Russian forces.
Spain will send a number of heavy weapons and one of them is the Leopard 24A MBT. This Battle Tank has in fact been stored for a decade in a Spanish army logistics base. At the same time, Spain will also train Ukrainian soldiers to operate these tanks.
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Ukraine itself is used to using weapons systems from Russia, so a lot of help from Western countries that they can not directly operate. The Leopard 2A4 MBT training will take place in Latvia, where the Spanish Army has a contingent of 500 troops with six Leopard 2E tanks, within the framework of NATO's Enhanced Advanced Presence (EFP) operation.
Quoted from Army Recognition, Spain has a total of MBTs, including 108 German Leopard 2A4s and 218 Leopard 2Es. The A08 units of the Leopard 2A4 MBT are second-hand tanks purchased by Spain from Germany in 1985. The Leopard 2A4 is a German-made heavyweight tank designed and manufactured by the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann Company, as a successor to the successful Leopard 1 MBT.
Main Battle Tank (MBT) Leopard 2A4
Again as a reminder that the German-made Leopard 2A4 was designed and manufactured by the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann Company, as a successor to the Leopard 1 MBT. The Leopard 2A4 is one version of the current base of the Leopard MBT family, quoted Army Recognition.
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Starting in 1977, when the German Army selected Krauss-Maffei as the main contractor for the Leopard 2 series production. At that time, the German Army ordered up to 1,800 MBTs with various options from Krauss-Maffei.
The first pre-production Leopard 2 MBTs were delivered to the German Army in late 1978 for training. The first production Leopard 2 was delivered by Krauss-Maffei in October 1979 in Munich. Six tanks were delivered in 1979, 100 in 1980, 220 in 1981 and by 1982 production was running at 300 per year.
The Leopard 2 is operational with Austria, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and Turkey, totaling 3,200 units. No discussion of the tank is complete without discussing its weapons, the Leopard 2A4 MBT is equipped with a 120mm smoothbore cannon.
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This 120mm cannon fires two types of ammunition, namely APFSDS-T, and HEAT-MP-T, quoted Army Recognition. The APFSDS-T ammunition has an effective range of more than 2 kilometers, and the HEAT-MP-T is used to attack both soft and hard targets.
The Leopard 2A4 MBT carries a total of 42 rounds with 27 ammunition stored on the driver's left and 15 on the left side of the turret. The secondary weapons are a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun mounted on the left side of the main armament and one 7.62mm machine gun into the loader hatch.
There are also 76mm smoke grenade launchers mounted on each side of the turret. The Leopard 2A4 cannon has computerized fire control which has a maximum range of 10 kilometers. Thus, the MBT is capable of striking moving targets at a distance of up to 5 kilometers while the tank is also in motion.
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While the kitchen spur is the MTU MB 873 diesel engine, which produces an engine output of 1,103 kW, quoted Army Recognition. The MTU MB 873 diesel engine is a four stroke, 47.6 liter, 12 cylinder multi-fuel, turbo-charged, liquid-cooled engine. The Leopard 2A4 can run at a maximum road speed of 72 kilometers with a maximum cruising range of 550 kilometers.
The Leopard 2A4 torsion bar suspension on each side consists of seven dual-rubber road wheels. This MBT is able to overcome slopes of up to 60 percent and side slopes of up to 30 percent.