Ukraine showcases upgraded Leopard 1 tank

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Welcome back to the Defense news channel for a discussion about Ukraine has revealed its upgraded Leopard 1A5V tanks, now part of the 5th Separate Tank Brigade. Enhanced with additional armor, protective screens, and explosive reactive armor (ERA), these modifications aim to counter threats like enemy FPV drones. The upgrades cover the vehicle’s frontal projection and strengthen the vulnerable turret-hull connection. Defense News is a YouTube channel dedicated to military world lover.

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[brealistic]

The Ukrainian people are amazing for their innovative abilities. Look what they did with cheap commercial drones. Now they are improving the leopard 1. They are doing similar things to older but still useable NATO weapons systems across the board.

[Hornet_Legion]

In this war if you are spotted and immobilized you are dead no matter how much armor you have.

The Leopard was originally designed just for that kind of war where mobility, stealth and gun accuracy are priority.

[polarstorm]

No matter if the upgrades really do the trick or not but, "hell ya" the Leo 1 looks bad ass jacked up this way. Gives me some Mad Max vibes. :D

[yoda]

The Leo 1 is a fine tank. Ukraine has proven their cleverness and innovation in adapting weapons to the current situation. Since "tank on tank" is currently not a big consideration in this war it will be interesting to see how Ukraine breathes new life into this proven vehicle. The 105mm stocks should not be to great a concern since it was also the standard American tank round prior to the late 1980's. Ammo lasts a long time in storage. I was issued 1942(!!!) manufacture .50 cal' during gunnery in the 1980''s and it fired well.

[aspopulvera]

it's a good combo if you combine german engineering with Ukrainian's ingenuity

[Ring]

Amazed to see what they did with this old girl. Slava Ukrani.

[alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi]

Its like the M60 final upgrade package,

[jansix]

Drones can’t carry very much explosives. So an upgraded Leopard 1A5 can actually become a very well protected tank despite its old age.

[Leptospirosi]

Italy has a lot of 105mm ammunitions from its Leopard1 and Centauro B1, now being phased out. the same is true for the USA whish has the 105/L51 mounted on the Striker, it's old M60 fleet and the original M1A and now the upcoming M10 Booker.
There is no lack of 105mm in any nato country being a really ubiquitous gun.
There is also a depot with almost 2700 Leopard 2 lying around in Vercelli (IT) some of which could be refurbished and sent to ukraine: it depends how many of those are still worth the effort of bringing them back to combat order..

[papaschlumpf]

It always used standard NATO ammunition. US (Stryker) AGS uses 105 gun as well. Shouldn't be so difficult to produce new rounds. Machinery for this should still be existing and if not - just build it.

[RainerSaxonWessel]

Good to see that my old tank is still up to it. Godspeed to Ukraine.

[AlphaHorst]

getting ammunition for the 105mm gun is not an issue as the very same gun is still in service in almost every nato country and even in new projects. It just replaced the older 90mm gun of many light tanks.
The new US prototype light tank uses a very similar 105mm gun using standard nato 105mm munitions same as the leo 1. the germans also develop a new 105mm armed light tank and the french have a 105mm armed light tank in service for some years now.

[h.a.]

Ukraine, despite being under siege for years, has managed to knock out a pretty decent looking upgrade to a tank that's 60 years old now. The addition of ERA will improve the somewhat light armor of the original design, hope it'll also help against drones and other threats.

Meanwhile, the supposed "superpower" russia makes Turtle Tanks, or as I like to call them Sheds of Shame.

[PacChung-pd]

Nice upgrade. Looks like skirt plate for pzkw IV

[zedeyejoe]

Leopard 1's were built with low armour protection, the idea was that mobility would stop you getting hit.

[darrenskjoelsvold]

They still produce 105 mm ammo. There's a lot of weapon systems that use 105 mm ammo. According to my financial analysis some months ago, I was able to determine that 105 mm ammo was one of the most cost-effective munitions because of its ubiquity on the battlefield. I learned so much about different ammunition types during my research when talking to people they thought I was exmilitary or something but nope just a bean counting pencil pusher researching cost benefit analysis and ammunition types. So the most cost effective munition as it turns out is HE in 105mm. Second most cost effective is 120mm and after that 155 mm artillery shells but it's so close and debatable because the analysis was based on success rates reported by the Ukrainians but if you flip to numbers provided by the third party resources the 155 becomes second but the 105 retains its position either way. Any supply issues should be due to how often they use 105 mm ammunition.

[jasons]

The US should be fixing these problems now not later

[matthew]

Here come the beast from World of Tanks! Good luck 🇺🇦 🫶

[martindrewelius]

I am glad that they like the tank so much.

[BITStudioCode]

What ERA is it using? Konktakt 1? If so that shit won’t stop any modern Russian ammunition, like ke and atgm. The base armor of the leopard 1 is already basically obsolete against a t-72b3 or a t-90a. Also cope cages are death traps for crew.