West German Leopard 3 MBT

[Apophenia]

Ah, so a cheaper upgrade. Makes sense now, thank you!

I should have mentioned this before ... that speculative BW turret looks very much like that of the lightly-armoured Italian C1 Ariete - right down to those open-topped rear bins. It has just been announced that the Ariete fleet it to go through a upgrade programme - belatedly bringing them up to C2 standard, I guess.

So something very much like that speculative model may be about to appear ... just not with BW Schwarzes Kreuz markings

 

[Scott Kenny]

I hear your point. You could keep the gun centered on the pivot without the turret form being perfectly symmetrical. Smart munitions seem to strike dead center on the turret mass. On autoloaders that usually means directly on the loading mechanism itself. I would assume moving the pivot point off center of the turret mass would add survivability in a 2+2 configuration.

Maybe. I'd just as soon make an ADS that works against top attack missiles, because a centered turret ring and turret make design a lot easier.

 

[GTX]

https://www.twz.com/land/germany-kicks-off-work-on-leopard-3-main-battle-tank

 

[GTX]

https://www.armyrecognition.com/foc...ard-3-armed-with-130mm-cannon#google_vignette

 

[Big_Zukini]

https://www.armyrecognition.com/foc...ard-3-armed-with-130mm-cannon#google_vignette

No these aren't orders for Leopard 3, but for components claimed to boost existing Leopard 2s capabilities as a stopgap until the MGCS. Including main gun, powerpack, and some new protection system said to be based on MUSS.

This is the original article.
https://www.hartpunkt.de/bundeswehr...tem-und-triebwerk-fuer-leopard-2-kampfpanzer/

 

[Frankenheimer]

Some stuff on the Versuchsträger Fronttriebwerk (trial-vehicle front-engined). A prototype was build by Krupp MaK and Thyssen Henschel for the German army to explore this layout for the family of armored vehicles of the 90s (Kampfwagen 90) The mock up 'giraffe tank' pictured uses a Krauss Maffei turret on the VTF hull. MaK would later base their proposals for the KW2000 and NGP on the VTF.

the vehicle looks very similar to the Leopard 3FT. I discovered the picture yesterday on a Russian website.

https://andrei-bt.livejournal.com/2523118.html

 

[Andrei_bt]

This is Leopard 3FT Mod 2 with frontal engine and transmission. model and design concept by MaK, 1979

 

[Frankenheimer]

Does anyone still have pictures of the front engine variant FT Mod 2? I would like to build it as a 3rd print model and unfortunately have no information on how it would look front and rear.

 

[MihoshiK]

The Leopard 3FT mod2 with front engine could have looked something like this

The fall of the iron curtain and the "end" of the Cold War was a good thing, but it robbed us of some helluva cool stuff.

 

[sp_mm]

The fall of the iron curtain and the "end" of the Cold War was a good thing, but it robbed us of some helluva cool stuff.

The Leopard 3FT program already was halted before the end of the Cold War, as it provided no reasonable gain in performance over the Leopard 2.

 

[Frankenheimer]

The book mentions this, but it does not describe the flat tower concept from 1979 to 1982, only the Leopard 3 that came after it. However, it is unclear to me who coined the name Leopard 3, whether it was the industry or BAAINBw. Apparently, none were ever built.
Also interesting are the three turret designs (Scheitellafette), which, however, preceded the flat turret.