{"id":1093,"date":"2017-03-09T15:52:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T13:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1093"},"modified":"2017-03-09T15:53:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T13:53:56","slug":"daesh-terrorists-destroy-myth-of-germanys-indestructible-leopard-2-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1093","title":{"rendered":"ISIS Terrorists Destroy Myth of Germany’s Indestructible Leopard 2 Tank"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leopard<\/a>

German Leopard IIA4 MBT (\u00a9 Flickr\/ Metziker)<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

ISIS has identified a weak spot in Germany’s legendary Leopard 2 battle tanks, and has destroyed ten of the machines used by the Turkish Army in northern Syria, the German newspaper Die Welt reported.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Battles in\u00a0Afghanistan, Kosovo and elsewhere have earned Germany’s Leopard 2 battle tank a reputation for\u00a0being indestructible. In one case, Canadian forces managed to\u00a0drive a Leopard through\u00a0a massive Taliban bomb blast and survive.<\/p>\n

However, Turkish troops fighting the terrorist group Daesh in\u00a0northern Syria have had a different experience. According to\u00a0reports, Daesh fighters in\u00a0the city of\u00a0Al Bab have destroyed ten Leopard 2A4 battle tanks.<\/p>\n

\"Turkish<\/a>

Turkish MBT fight with ISIS in Al-Bab North Syria<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Searching for\u00a0answers, some German bloggers have speculated that leadership failures or a lack of\u00a0experience among\u00a0Turkish troops may be to\u00a0blame. However, the fundamental issue appears to\u00a0be whether the 60 ton tanks are suitable for\u00a0use in\u00a0an urban environment, the German newspaper Die Welt reported<\/a> on\u00a0Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Leopard 2 basic concept comes from\u00a0a time when the enemy was expected to\u00a0attack from\u00a0the front. This basic design applies internationally to\u00a0the big combat tanks, even to\u00a0the most modern Russian T-14 Armata,” Die Welt wrote.<\/p>\n

“The heavy-duty tracked vehicles are designed for\u00a0a duel battle and have maximum protection in\u00a0the frontal area as\u00a0well as\u00a0a small side angle. Since, for\u00a0example, the Russian anti-tank missile Kornet can penetrate even 1.2-meter-thick armor, a tank’s less-protected areas are relatively vulnerable.”<\/p>\n

“During the course of\u00a0fighting in\u00a0the Syrian town of\u00a0al-Bath, the Turks’ approximately 30-year-old Leopards were often shot in\u00a0the rear and sometimes from\u00a0the side with\u00a0anti-tank weapons. There, the massive tracked vehicles are less protected. Soldiers agree that a battle in\u00a0a city can’t be compared with\u00a0a duel on\u00a0wide, undeveloped land, where tanks usually fight their targets from\u00a0two or three kilometers away.”<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0a report from\u00a0the German-language magazine<\/a> European Security and Technology, the Leopard tanks in\u00a0service with\u00a0the Turkish army are especially vulnerable because they don’t have additional protection such as\u00a0reactive armor, which reacts to\u00a0and reduces a weapon’s impact, or an active protection system (APS) to\u00a0counterattack an incoming threat such as\u00a0the Trophy APS used by\u00a0the Israeli army.<\/p>\n

Daesh have destroyed the Leopard tanks by\u00a0firing anti-tank weapons at\u00a0the turret, which caused the ammunition inside\u00a0to explode, the magazine wrote.<\/p>\n

However, while reactive armor and APS make tanks more resistant to\u00a0attack, they also make the vehicles much heavier.<\/p>\n

The German defense ministry<\/a> told Die Welt that the newest version of\u00a0the Leopard 2, the A7V, is currently being introduced to\u00a0the German army and boasts higher protection compared to\u00a0the 2A4, which is no longer in\u00a0service with\u00a0the Bundeswehr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newest Leopard 2A7, 20 of\u00a0which were introduced to\u00a0the Bundeswehr in\u00a02014, reportedly has a special composite armor which includes layers of\u00a0ceramic. However, the models produced so far don’t have reactive armor, which was first installed in\u00a01982 on\u00a0Israeli tanks during\u00a0Israel’s war with\u00a0Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Singapore, which bought 96 Leopard 2A4 tanks between\u00a02006 and 2009, has upgraded them with\u00a0Advanced Modular Armor Protection (AMAP), a modular composite armor produced by\u00a0the German firm IBD Deisenroth Engineering.<\/p>\n

An example of\u00a0a reactive armor system is the one fitted on\u00a0Russia’s 50-ton Armata T-14. These explosive reactive armor plates are comprised of “bricks” of\u00a0explosive sandwiched between\u00a0two metal plates, which force an incoming projectile to\u00a0dissipate its impact over\u00a0a larger volume of\u00a0armor.<\/p>\n

Active protection systems include Raytheon’s Quick Kill APS and Israel’s Trophy APS, which uses radar antenna to\u00a0track incoming rocket-propelled grenades and missiles, and deploys multiple explosively formed penetrators (EFP) to\u00a0destroy them.<\/p>\n

Russia’s T-14 Armata<\/a> battle tanks and T-15 Armata heavy infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) are fitted with\u00a0the\u00a0Afganit APS<\/a>, which employs a combination of\u00a0active phased antenna array radars and UV detectors to\u00a0identify and track incoming projectiles, and mini-mortar systems which use fragmentation rounds to\u00a0intercept and destroy incoming threats in\u00a0mid-flight.<\/p>\n

Source: By EU (Sputnik) – (sputniknews.com News<\/a>) \u2013 January, 2017<\/p>\n

Kaydet<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaydet<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISIS has identified a weak spot in Germany’s legendary Leopard 2 battle tanks, and has destroyed ten of the machines used by the Turkish Army in northern Syria, the German newspaper Die Welt reported....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,173,1,21,18],"tags":[198,1117,1123,1119,1118,1121,1122,745,1116,1115,69,402,241,1124,1125,270,1120],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1099,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}