The 29th of June 2000 the
Danish Army Command signed a contract with Krauss-Maffei
Wegmann, concerning the upgrade of 51 Leopard 2 A4 to
Leopard 2 A5 DK standard. The project is worth 980 mill.
DKr. The tanks will be distributed to 1. Brigade.
The A5 are expected to be operative until 2025.
The first A5 was handed over to the Army Material Command
on the 24th of September 2002.
It was the wish of the units that the new Leopard 2 A5 DK
should be of the standard of Leopard
1 A5 DK (SFOR).
The configuration are based on the German/Dutch
"Mannheimer-configuration" and the improvements
made on the Swedish S 122.
The upgraded Leopard 2 A5 DK will be equal to the
German/Dutch Leopard 2 A5 with the specific purpose of
being able to share training, logistical and technical
expertise with other users of Leopard 2 A5.
The upgrade has increased Gross Vehicle Weight to some
65.000 kg.
The Danish Leopard 2 A5
will have more improvements than the German/Dutch tanks,
and will use the improvements made with the Leopard 1 A5
DK (SFOR).
Key elements of the upgrade are:
- Primarily an improvement of the passive protection of
the crew and the tank.
- Secondly an improvement of the TC´s working environment and his
possibilities of using the tank in different
circumstances.
- Technical upgrading as required when adding/replacing
armour.
- Arrangements to ensure future upgrading of the tank.
- Other improvements.
Passive protection:
- The Leopard 2 A4 configuration with the main and
secondary sights are closed with new armour-modules. The
gun mantel are made narrower to make room for the
armoured modules which are placed on the front of the
turret and the forward part of the sides of the turret.
- On the hull the existing composite armour are replaced
with improved composite armour and additional armour are
placed on the front. The skirts are replaced with a new
type. The drivers hatch are replaced with a new hatch
which will be somewhat heavier. The new type of hatch
will be a slide-type of hatch.
The bearings of the road wheels will be of a new type
witch are armoured.
On the inside both turret and hull will be fitted with
spall-liners to protect against fragments. The protection
of the hull differs from the Mannheimer-configuration
where there are no replacements of the armour in the
hull. This is manly due to the late batch of hulls where
the protection is somewhat better than the hulls of the
Danish Leopard 2 A4.
Further improvements:
- Due to the increased weight of the turret and the
lessons learnt during the Golf War the Leopard 2 A5 DK
are fitted with a 100% electrical system for turning the
turret, stabilising the gun etc. The system is capable of
supporting a latter upgrade of the gun to 120 mm L55 or a
140 mm gun, and an additional armour on the top of the
turret.
- The angulated head of the gunners primary sight will be
moved on to the top of the turret. The TC will be able to
see the gunners sight on a monitor through the
Charge-Coupled-Device (CCD). The secondary sight of the
gunner will be moved as to make it possible to put
additional armour on the front of the turret, as mention
above.
- The commanders sight are moved to the rear of his
cupola and will be fitted with stabilised sight with both
daylight and thermal sights. The sights will be delivered
by Elop Electro-Optics Industries, a subsidiary to Elbit
Systems Ltd.in Israel. The contract is worth $3 million
and runs over a period of two years.
- The weight of the tank will increase to around 61 tons
(MLC 70) instead of the 55 tons (MLC 60).
- The tank will be fitted with an hybrid-navigational
system based on the GPS-system, backed up by an inertial
navigational system. The system will be prepared for
future identification systems.
- On the rear of the tank a camera will be mounted, witch
will enable the driver to back up without the aid of the
TC (only in daylight or twilight).
- The cooling air of the engine are re-routed so as to
ensure a further low thermal signature with no cooling
are to be wended to the sides only in the back of the
tank.
- Furthermore the vehicle will be fitted with an
electrical generator to help keeping the cooling system
(air-condition and turret) with electricity. Also this
will enable the tank to be fitted with some kind of
battlefield management system in the future.
- As mention above the tank will have an air-conditioning
system, and an explosion suppression system. The engine
compartment will be protected a fully automated system to
protect against napalm.
- The fuel tanks are protected against explosions as with
the Leopard 1 A5 DK (SFOR).
The upgrading will take
place in Munich (hull) and Kassel (turret).
As of 2010 the number of operational
Leopard 2A5 have been decreased to 34 (2 operational squadrons and 1 in
reserve).
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