Ukraine is getting several different types of the German Leopard main battle tank. The oldest tanks it is getting are the Leopard 1A5s. This aid received some criticism – some people are afraid that the Leopard 1A5 is going to be a museum-grade antique on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, the Leopard 1A5 main battle tank has excellent optics, just like the Leopard 2. It also features good maneuverability. Its weakness is old and thin armour.
Leopard 1A5 in Greece. NATO forces don’t use these tanks that commonly nowadays. Image credit: Evilemperorzorg via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Western countries promised to transfer almost 200 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine. This will make them one of the main tanks in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, people do not fail to mention that the Leopard 1A5 first entered service in the early 1980s. Furthermore, architecturally it is very similar to even earlier Leopard 1, which entered service in 1965.
All the earlier versions of the Leopard were eventually upgraded to the 1A5 standard. These tanks have relatively weak armour but great sights, 2S7 Pion writes on Twitter.
Most importantly, the Leopard 1A5 has many advantages over the T-64 or T-72, which constitute the backbone of the Russian armoured forces in Ukraine. One should not forget that a lot of the Russian tanks are actually older than the very early Leopard 1A5s.
The Leopard 1A5 has great sights
The main advantage of the Leopard 1A5 is the EMES-18 fire control system, a modified version of which is also used in the Leopard 2A4, the 2A6 and the Swedish Strv 122. In addition, the night vision capabilities of this main battle tank are also similar to the Leopard 2. This means that the Leopard 1A5 can detect and engage targets similarly to the Leopard 2.
The 1A5 version is the most common version of the first generation of the Leopard main battle tank. Image credit: Ministério da Defesa via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Of course, it needs to be said that the gun itself – rifled 105 mm – is nowhere near as good as the smoothbore 120 mm used by the Leopard 2 tanks.
Meanwhile, Russia is increasingly using tanks that do not have thermal imaging systems at all (for example, T-72 and T-72B) and rely on infrared sights, which have a limited range. This means that at least in this regard the Leopard 1A5 has better capabilities in limited lighting.
The Leopard 1A5 can reverse quickly
The Leopard 1A5 engine, according to 2S7 Pion, proved to be very successful over the decades of service. This tank is powered by an MTU 37.4 l 10 cylinder, pushing around 610 kW of power. The max speed of the Leopard 1A5 is around 65 km/h.
But there is another big difference from the Soviet machines – the speed of driving in reverse. The Russian T-72 or T-90 reverses at 4-5 km/h and up to 11 km/h respectively. This means that in order to retreat, these tanks either need to turn around, exposing the weaker armour in the rear, or reverse very slowly. This has a significant negative impact on survivability.
The horrendous reverse speed of the T-72 (4km/h), forced the Russian crew to turn their rear towards the enemy to fall back, allowing the Ukrainian ATGM to impact their weakest area of protection. pic.twitter.com/HakYUc0FYX
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) November 21, 2022
The Leopard 1A5 tank has a reverse speed of 25 km/h, which increases its ability to leave the battlefield safer. In addition, this tank has great mobility characteristics, especially off-road. It’s not too heavy, weighing in at around 43 tonnes – much lighter than more modern Western main battle tanks.
The weakest point
The Leopard 1A5’s weakness is its armour. However, this problem can be solved at least partially by installing dynamic protection brick Kontakt on the front and the sides of the turret and possibly on the sides of the hull. The Kontact reactive armour was already used to enhance the protection of the Leopard 2A4 tanks.
Written by Povilas M.
Sources: 2S7 Pion Twitter, Wikipedia