The Leopard Tanks - MBTs
The Leopard 1 Main Battle Tank was post-war Germany's first tank, designed and built in West Germany. In 1955, ten years after the end of World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany was allowed to rearm and was invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Given Germany's history of successful tank production and use, it would seem logical that the Leopard 1 Main Battle Tank would be an extension of the technology developed for the Panther and Tiger series of tanks. Actually, it is not.
Following Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945, the Allies made certain that all military production facilities were completely dismantled. So the Germans had to begin from scratch when they designed and built the Leopard tank.
The design started as a collaborative project between Germany and France in the 1950s, but the partnership ended and the final design was ordered by the Federal German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr). The Leopard 1 is an MBT of 1960s derivation. It is heavily gunned and armored, although less so than the Soviet MBTs it was designed to face.
First entering service in 1965, the Leopard focused on firepower in the form of the German-built version of the British L7 105-mm gun, and improved cross-country performance that was unmatched by other designs of the era. The tank can be sealed and overpressurized for use in a nuclear-biological-chemical warfare environment.
The Leopard quickly became a standard of European forces, and eventually served as the main battle tank in over a dozen countries worldwide. In total 6,485 Leopard tanks have been built, of which 4,744 were battle tanks and 1741 were utility and anti-aircraft variants, not including eighty prototypes and pre-series vehicles.
In the early 1970s, Krauss-Maffei developed the Leopard 2 for the West German Army. Succeeding the Leopard 1 as the main battle tank, it first entered service in 1979. As of now, more than 3480 tanks have been manufactured.
Various versions of Leopard 2 have served in the armed forces of Germany, twelve other European countries, as well as several non-European nations. It first saw combat in Kosovo with the German Army and has also seen action in Afghanistan with the Danish and Canadian ISAF forces.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has now entered into a partnership with Ashok Leyland Defence Systems Ltd. to jointly develop avant-guard Defence systems, such as artillery, infantry fighting vehicles, Armored wheeled vehicles and more for the national and international markets.
