Leopard 2K

Leopard 2K

◊T-72M1

Leopard 2K

◊T-72M1

Germany

VII Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
10.0	10.0	10.0

Class:

Medium tank

Research:260 000

Purchase:710 000

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This page is about the German medium tank Leopard 2K. For other uses, see Leopard (Family).

Description

The Leopard 2K is a rank VII German medium tank with a battle rating of 10.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.77 "Advancing Storm".

General info

Survivability and armour

The Leopard 2K is one of the most thinly armoured MBT in the German tree, having only 50 mm of actual thickness and 144 mm of effective thickness upper frontal plate and actual 59 mm with an effective thickness of 118 mm for its lower frontal plate. Thin armour would tend to cause concern for the tanker, however, much of this is negated due to the angles in the armour. For survivability, it is almost comparable to the T-64s but without blowing up, playing this tank is a 50/50.

Mobility

The Mobility of the Leopard 2K is astonishing, making it one of the most agile MBTs in its BR, reaching the speed of 70km/h on road.

Armaments

Main armament

The Leopard 2Ks gun is a 120 mm Rheinmetall L44 It can be found on the later models of the tank, such as the Leopard 2A4, and Leopard 2A5. But this does not mean it gets all of the later rounds, the rounds that the Leopard 2K gets is a DM12 and DM13 just like the Leopard A1A1 L/44. Being fitted with a 120 mm Rheinmetall gun it is effective at all ranges, capable of Penetrating tanks 1,000 m away

Additional armament

The tank has an anti-aircraft gun which can be used to knock out Gun Barrels, Light Tanks, Helicopters and Planes.

Machine guns

Offensive and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight some aircraft but also are effective against lightly armoured vehicles. Evaluate machine guns and give recommendations on its use.

Usage in battles

As mentioned earlier, the Leopard 2K is very Agile, well equipped and thinly armoured. Using the mobility of the tank can take you to places where the enemy will not expect a tank to be in such a short period of time or this tank can sit back and snipe from a good distance. It is not a good idea to lead the advance because of the armour on this vehicle as it's best to let the well-armoured tanks take the lead. This tank is just an M18, but has a good gun and is even faster if you utilise its speed, doing so will allow for potential domination of the matches

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 120mm gun with effective rounds
• Sloped armour has a tendency to bounce shots
• 20mm cannon very effective against light armour and aircraft
• Excellent mobility

Cons:

• Thin armour, ineffective if angles and cover not utilized
• Slow reload time relative to tanks with smaller guns or autoloaders

History

In the 1960s, Germany and the United States were jointly-developing the MBT-70, and Germany was contractually prevented from developing any new MBTs independently until the joint project with the US was completed.

But development problems plagued the MBT-70 project, and it appeared that the vehicle would not be finished within an acceptable time frame—so Germany found a way to bypass contractual limitations for the MBT-70 development.

Instead of ordering the development of a new tank, the German government issued an order to the Porsche company to research ways to improve the Leopard I tank already in service with the German army. This enabled Germany to research a more advanced fighting vehicle without breaching the contract signed with the US.

Porsche’s first study of the Leopard I revealed a lot of room for improvement, and second study focusing on upgrading the Leopard I to match the MBT-70’s firepower was launched almost immediately. This eventually resulted in the construction of two prototype vehicles—one in 1969 and one in 1970—nicknamed Keiler (tusker).

In the early 1970s, Germany was able to back out of the MBT-70 project due to spiraling development costs. Instead, they continued work on the development of the Keiler, which was renamed to Leopard 2.

The Leopard 2 project was expected to yield two versions: the Leopard 2K armed with a cannon, and the Leopard 2FK armed with a gun/launcher similar to the MBT-70. In 1971, ten prototypes were ordered, and seven more orders followed shortly thereafter.

To get the most out of their prototypes, German engineers equipped each one with different components to determine what worked best. Some Leopard 2 versions were equipped with a 105mm smoothbore cannon, whereas others were fitted with 120mm smoothbore cannons. Some prototypes received a hydraulic suspension while others didn’t, and there was even a version equipped with the 20mm anti-air mount on the turret (similar to the one found on the Kpz-70).

Sixteen out of seventeen Leopard 2 prototypes were built and tested, yielding many refinements to the Leopard 2 design. Subsequent models further increased the Leopard 2’s capabilities, with each variant making it more powerful—and ultimately into the Leopard 2 known today.

- From Devblog

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] Leopard 2K: A Legend In The Making