Last Days of the Leopard

[Tiger-pie]

Hi all;

Here are some shots of the 1st Brigade on exercise. 1st Brigade, the Army?s mechanised formation, conducted combined arms missions comprising armoured cavalry, infantry, artillery and supporting branches. The training prepared select force elements for future operational deployments.

This was the last brigade exercise for the Leopard tank, with 18 from the 1st Armoured Regiment put through their paces.The Leopard will be phased out in July 2007 and replaced by the Abrams main battle tank.The Leopard was adopted in 1977 to replace the Centurion, which saw service in Vietnam.

Although never deployed overseas, the Leopard proved an outstanding, reliable and popular tank for its crews.

Regards;

Johnsy

[Tiger-pie]

Firing the MG3

[Tiger-pie]

Range practice.

[Tiger-pie]

Dust storm

[Tiger-pie]

Dust storm

[Tiger-pie]

Dust storm

[Tiger-pie]

On the same exercise, the engineers do a bit of their own dust storming.

[Tiger-pie]

The big Ka-boom !!!

[Bob Lyons]

Great shots Johnsy, I work with an ex Leopard driver and gunner, I will show them your photos, will make their day! (and it still upsets them that I, as a member of the Signals Corps, was one of the original tank trials mob way back in 1972, and yes I drove the beasts too, under tutilage from the black beret guys of course).

Bob

[Laurence Strong]

The big Ka-boom !!!

Ahh the old "Nuclear Simulator"

[Firefly]

A very good tank indeed, though I'm sure they'll be more than happy with the Abrams!

[Richard Gordon]

I'm surprised by that. Only today I saw a program that stated the Leopard2 was one of the best battle tanks around today. So much so that the Abrams uses the same 120mm gun!

Rich

[Kev in Deva]

A very good tank indeed, though I'm sure they'll be more than happy with the Abrams!

Hallo Gents, Wait till they see the fuel bill Kevin in Deva

[Alfred]

The picture looks like the Leopard 1. In the German Army the Leoperd 2 ist still in use.

In the last years they make combat efficiency improvement to the Lepard 2 A7.

Here are some pictures.

regards

Andreas

[Laurence Strong]

I wonder if they will be going with the 140mm gun they have trialed in the Leo 2A5 KWS III

Edited April 11, 2007 by Laurence Strong

[Kev in Deva]

Hallo Gents,

I was just watching on the National Geographic Channel on tv a program about the M1 Abrahns being refurbished from old, knocked out M1 tanks (apparantly no new tanks have been made since 1993), the carcasses are stripped of the 1,200 parts, and up-graded, as you get to the part in the program where they marry the turret to the hull it was interesting to see little Kangaroo stenciled on the front of the turret, so these must be some the ones heading off to Australia.

Kevin in Deva.

[Tiger-pie]

Hallo Gents, Wait till they see the fuel bill Kevin in Deva

Just when I was thinking that it isn't worth posting anything on this forum due to a perceived lack of interest, an avalanche of replies...

I don't think we will be deploying our Abrams overseas, at the time of writing this we do not have the shipping capability to do so. The army goes off and buys stuff without consulting the Senior Service on its requirements for carriage.

The main reason behind adopting the Abrams is that our crews can be cycled through US units, though I am only speculating on this point. So basically they will be able to "kick the tires, and light the fires" after drawing a tank from the vehicle park and deploy with US units. Wether this will be at an individual level, i.e. one tank crew per platoon, or as an independant unit, I do not know.

It is our current defence policy to maintain close ties with the US with regards to common training and, as in this case, equipment.

Regards;

Johnsy

PS: Perhaps I should start a new thread "New Days of the Abrams".

Edited April 13, 2007 by Tiger-pie

[Tiger-pie]

Tank Recovery Vehicle

[Tiger-pie]

Trials at Puckapunyal army training area.

[Tiger-pie]

On the firing range.

[Pylon1357]

I wonder if they will be going with the 140mm gun they have trialed in the Leo 2A5 KWS III

Hello Laurence. I am not sure about those two photos you posted. The top one is an altered version of the second picture. I assume you were making a joke which has been lost on me.

[Laurence Strong]

Nope no joke, not sure what the significance of the photo with the short barrel is, but it's the real deal. A Leo 2 with a 140mm gun.

http://fprado.com/armorsite/leo2.htm

Scroll down a little ways

Edited April 14, 2007 by Laurence Strong

[Pylon1357]

Thanks for that link, very interesting reading for sure.

[peter monahan]

Not the last days of the Leopard at all! Canada has just announced that we are going to lease and buy Leo IIs from the Germans and Dutch for use in Afghanistan!

I particularly like the description of the Dutch ones, which apparently the Dutch Army found surplus to requirements after the Berlin Wall came down. They are, and I quote " low mileage and have been kept in heated storage". Only driven on Sundays by a little old armourer sergeant! Plus, they're to be airconditioned becauase apparently steel boxes, tracked or otherwise, can hit 50 degrees Celsius in southern Afghanistan in the summer.

Peter

[Laurence Strong]

Not the last days of the Leopard at all! Canada has just announced that we are going to lease and buy Leo IIs from the Germans and Dutch for use in Afghanistan!

I particularly like the description of the Dutch ones, which apparently the Dutch Army found surplus to requirements after the Berlin Wall came down. They are, and I quote " low mileage and have been kept in heated storage". Only driven on Sundays by a little old armourer sergeant! Plus, they're to be airconditioned becauase apparently steel boxes, tracked or otherwise, can hit 50 degrees Celsius in southern Afghanistan in the summer.

Peter

Seems to me that we were fed the same line with 4 subs . But I would think it's easier to maintain a tank than a submarine.