Difference between revisions of "Leopard 2K"

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The tank has a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun situated on top of the turret which can fire over cover and be used to knock out Gun Barrels, Light Tanks, Helicopters and Planes. The belts are alternating AP-IT/HEF-IT, with 47 mm of penetration at 90 degrees at 0 m. The 20 mm has quite good elevation, and rotates independently from the turret, able to surprise light tanks attempting to flank following turret ring immobilization.
 
The tank has a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun situated on top of the turret which can fire over cover and be used to knock out Gun Barrels, Light Tanks, Helicopters and Planes. The belts are alternating AP-IT/HEF-IT, with 47 mm of penetration at 90 degrees at 0 m. The 20 mm has quite good elevation, and rotates independently from the turret, able to surprise light tanks attempting to flank following turret ring immobilization.
  
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{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
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|-
 +
! colspan="7" |[[Rh202 (20 mm)|20 mm Rh202]]
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|-
 +
! colspan="4" rowspan="1" style="width:5em" |Capacity (Belt capacity)
 +
! rowspan="1" |Fire rate
 +
(shots/minute)
 +
! rowspan="1" |Vertical
 +
guidance
 +
! rowspan="1" |Horizontal
 +
guidance
 +
|-
 +
| colspan="4" |750 (750)||900||-9'''°'''/+45'''°'''||±180°
 +
|}
 
=== Machine guns ===
 
=== 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.-->
 
<!--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.-->

Revision as of 20:28, 16 June 2020

Rank VI USA | Premium | Golden Eagles
A-10A Thunderbolt (Early)
Leopard 2K
germ_leopard_2k.png
Leopard 2K
AB RB SB
9.7 9.7 9.7
Class:
Research:260 000 Specs-Card-Exp.png
Purchase:710 000 Specs-Card-Lion.png
Show in game
This page is about the German medium tank Leopard 2K. For other uses, see Leopard (Family).

Description

GarageImage Leopard 2K.jpg


The Leopard 2K is a rank VII German medium tank with a battle rating of 9.7 (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

Game Mode Max Speed (km/h) Weight (tons) Engine power (horsepower) Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward Reverse Stock Upgraded Stock Upgraded
Arcade 81 81 50 2032 2,862 40.64 57.24
Realistic 73 73 1327 1,500 26.54 30

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

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of warhead Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack
10m 100m 500m 1000m 1500m 2000m
DM12 HEATFS 480 480 480 480 480 480
DM13 APFSDS 393 390 384 376 367 359

Additional armament

Main article: Rh202 (20 mm)

The tank has a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun situated on top of the turret which can fire over cover and be used to knock out Gun Barrels, Light Tanks, Helicopters and Planes. The belts are alternating AP-IT/HEF-IT, with 47 mm of penetration at 90 degrees at 0 m. The 20 mm has quite good elevation, and rotates independently from the turret, able to surprise light tanks attempting to flank following turret ring immobilization.

20 mm Rh202
Capacity (Belt capacity) Fire rate

(shots/minute)

Vertical

guidance

Horizontal

guidance

750 (750) 900 -9°/+45° ±180°

Machine guns

Main article: MG 3A1 (7.62 mm)
7.62 mm MG 3A1
Coaxial mount
Capacity (Belt capacity) Fire rate

(shots/minute)

Vertical

guidance

Horizontal

guidance

5,500 (1,000) 1,200 N/A N/A

Usage in battles

As mentioned earlier, the Leopard 2K is very agile, well equipped and thinly armoured. Overall the tank fits well into both flanker and sniper roles. 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. It is not a good idea to lead the advance or brawl because of the lack of armour on this vehicle, and it's best to instead 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 utilize its speed, doing so will allow for potential domination of the matches.

Modules

Tier Mobility Protection Firepower
I Tracks Parts Horizontal Drive DM13
II Suspension Brake System FPE Adjustment of Fire
III Filters Crew Replenishment Elevation Mechanism Smoke grenade
IV Transmission Engine Artillery Support Laser rangefinder NVD

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • 120 mm gun with effective rounds
  • APFSDS is a tier 1 modification - high-velocity rounds allow for long-range shots with ease
  • Sloped armour has a tendency to bounce shots, somewhat making up for the lack of actual thickness
  • 20 mm cannon very effective against light armour and aircraft
  • Excellent mobility - one of the most mobile tanks on the battlefield

Cons:

  • Thin armour, ineffective if angles and cover not utilised
  • Relatively large profile, the 20 mm Rh 202 gun often sticks out behind cover, making an easy target for Russian HE-Frag-FS shells
  • Slow reload time relative to tanks with smaller guns or autoloaders
  • Stock round is HEAT-FS, and struggles against allied vehicles, especially ones outfitted with ERA blocks (such as the T-64BV it often faces)
  • Infrared imager is less effective than thermal imager during night battles
  • Thin top armour and auto cannon means you are a priority target by rocket helicopters and aircraft due to the tanks ability to destroy them with relative ease once they get close

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

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


Germany medium tanks
Pz.III  Pz.III B · Pz.III E · Pz.III F · Pz.III J · Pz.III J1 · Pz.III J1 TD · Pz.III L · Pz.III M · Pz.III N
Pz.IV  Pz.IV C · Pz.IV E · Pz.IV F1 · Pz.IV F2 · Pz.IV G · Pz.IV H · Pz.IV J · Pz.Bef.Wg.IV J
Pz.V  VK 3002 (M) · Panther A · Panther D · Panther F · Panther G · Ersatz M10 · Panther II
M48 upgrades  M48A2 G A2 · M48 Super
Leopard 1  Leopard I · Leopard A1A1 · Leopard A1A1 (L/44) · Leopard 1A5 · C2A1 · Turm III
Leopard 2  PT-16/T14 mod. · Leopard 2K · Leopard 2AV
  Leopard 2A4 · Leopard 2 (PzBtl 123) · Leopard 2A4M · Leopard 2 PL · Leopard 2A5 · Leopard 2 PSO · Leopard 2A6 · Leopard 2A7V
Trophies  ▀M4 748 (a) · ▀T 34 747 (r)
Other  Nb.Fz. · KPz-70
USA  mKPz M47 G · M48A2 C
USSR  ◊T-72M1