Leopard 2A4
Leopard 2A4: Main Battle Tank
Statistics
Main gun: 120mm Rheinmetall L44
Ammunition Stowage: 15 ready/27 stowed
Default Ammunition: 11/19 DM33 APFSDS, 4/8 DM12 HEAT, 0/0 DM33 APFSDS, 0/0 DM33 APFSDS
Coaxial machine gun: 7.62mm MG3
Ammunition Stowage: 1000 ready/3750 stowed
Default Ammunition: 1000/3750 7.62mm NATO
Grenade Dischargers: Grenades
Ammunition Stowage: 2 ready/6 stowed
Default Ammunition: 2/6 Smoke
Armour protection:
Frontal Turret Armour: 590-760mm KE, 810-1370mm HEAT
Frontal Hull Armour: 600mm KE, 710mm HEAT
(from SB documentation)
Combat Mass: 55.15t
Engine Power: 1500hp
Height 2.79m
General
The Leopard 2 was one of the first of the composite armoured tanks to see service, being the contemporary of the M1, and both were developed after the failure of the joint MBT70 program.
The Leopard 2A4 has improved armour over the very first versions, and fire supression and other passive protection systems, which have since become standard. The armour is strongly concentrated on the front turret, and to a lesser extent the front hull, but the sides and rear are only slightly heavier than the previous generation tanks, especially against KE attack.
The 120mm smoothbore gun is accurate and powerful, and with modern ammunition can be deadly at long ranges against main battle tanks. The fire control system is an integrated system incorporating a fixed magnification Daysight and a zoomable TIS system, and a daylight only commander's Peri. The gunner's auxillary sight provides adjustable superelevation, requiring only lead to be applied to moving target but allowing very accurate fire against stationary targets.
The Leopard 2 stores most of it's ammuntion in the hull, and is very vulnerable during the transfer of rounds from the secondary storage into the ready racks, as the turret must be rotated to the right rear and the vehicle cannot observe or fight. This is quicker than the M1 system of semi-ready rack and ready rack side by side in the turret bustle, but leaves the vehicle exposed and vulnerable if it is observed during the process.
With the default DM33 ammuntion the Leopard 2 is dangerous, but can struggle to acheive consistent performance against the T80U front armour. More recent ammunition types go a long way to reducing the area of the T80U that cannot be penetrated reliably.
Thermal Signature
Crew Positions
Tank Commander's Position F7
In Steel Beasts the tank commander's (TC) position on the Leopard 2A4 is fully crew-able but partially modeled. Currently the user cannot click on the switches in the interior 3D view, but the interior 3D view is present and the user's head pans from sight to sight, or to the vision blocks. The TC's position is accessed by pressing F7.
From this position the user can raise and lower their perspective (and exposure level) by holding the Q key (to go up) and the Z key (to go down). The TC can also button or unbutton (close and open the TC's hatch) by pressing the B key (toggle). While unbuttoned, the TC may also wish to use binoculars to get a closer view on a distant area by pressing the N key (toggle).
The TC also has smoke grenades at his disposal. The TC can fire smoke salvos by pressing TAB, once all loaded grenades are expended the grenade launches will need to be reloaded.
- The usefulness of the smoke grenade launches should not be underestimated, and it is one of the most useful tools at the disposal of the TC. Smoke grenade launchers are a vital tool for the security of the vehicle and should be used for a variety or reasons. These include, but are not limited to: attempting to break contact with the enemy, protection against non thermal sight equipped threats, and protecting the vehicle from enemy attempts to range you with an laser range finder. At the same time, care should be taken on when smoke is deployed since you are basically announcing your location to anyone else who might be unaware of it.
Commander's Periscope (PERI)
The commander's periscope is mounted in a fully traversable sight hood.
The TC can access the PERI sight by pressing F3.
Once the user is at the PERI gun sight, the user can traverse the sight using either the mouse, or joystick (both of which represent the cupola's powered traverse mode). When the fire control system and turret drives are functional the commander can align the gun and the PERI by using the Joystick HAT-UP or UP ARROW and HAT-DOWN or DOWN ARROW. "Up" corresponds to the commander overriding the gunner's controls, bringing the turret to the current PERI alignment and "Down" slaves the PERI to the gun, allowing the commander to observe the gunner's target. P cancels the gun-Peri alignment and allows gunner and commander to scan different sectors again.
The reticle on the PERI is a fixed size, and is only usable for range estimation at high mag (x8), a wider overview is available at low mag (x2). This is particularly useful on the Leopard 2A4 as the Gunner's primary sight only has a high mag day channel. The numbers around the reticule represent the current facing of the turret. The gun and PERI are roughly aligned if "12" appears at the top.
The Leopard 2 commander can fire the main gun if in Override mode, but never has access to dynamic lead, and using the Num Pad * must place the FCS into "KW" mode to enable lasing from the TC's position.
The absence of dynamic lead requires the commander to estimate and manually apply lead on moving targets.
Gunner's Primary Sight Extension (GPSE)
The PERI has a second mode - an optical extension of the Gunner's Primary Sight (GPS). The TC can confirm gunner is looking at and can override the gunner onto another target or even choose to engage the target himself. Press F2 to access this mode.
Once in the GPSE view, the view will essentially be identical to the GPS view (which is explained in the gunner's section). The important thing to remember is that the TC can override the gunner by pressing the UP-Arrow key - however the GPS will turn to the current PERI direction, so it is important to first slave the PERI to the GPS Down-Arrow. While looking through the GPSE in the override mode, the TC can move the turret and engage targets if necessary. By pressing either the Down-Arrow or the P key, you are giving control back to the gunner. As in the other PERI mode, the commander does not have dynamic lead, and must place the PERI into "KW" mode before he can use the laser rangefinder.
TC's vision block view
On some occasions the TC may need to quickly look around the vehicle without having to spin the turret and without having to expose himself to hostile fire. Although the PERI allows this, the Leopard 2A4 retains conventional vision blocks as well. The vision block view allows the TC to remain safely inside the vehicle and quickly scan around for close threats. It is most useful when enemy infantry are in the immediate area. Access the TC's vision block view by pressing F4.
Once in the vision block view, the mouse or joystick can be used to quickly and seamlessly pan the TC's view from vision block to vision block, allowing him to scan around the vehicle. While the vision block view completely protects the TC from hostile fire, it does have an extremely limited field of view and offers no magnification.
Key listing for Leo2A4 TC's position
General Commands:
TAB: Pop smoke. Launches smoke grenades to deploy a smoke screen in the direction that the turret is facing. Useful for breaking up enemy LRF or completely obscuring your vehicle against a non thermal sight equipped threat.
P: Cancel Override. Returns control of turret to gunner and PERI to commander.
Q: Raise position in hatch. Moves the TC's view and exposure level up in the hatch.
Z: Lower position in hatch. Moves the TC's view and exposure level down in the hatch.
B: Button hatches. Moves the TC's view down and closes the hatch. This is useful for protection from artillery and small-arms. A second press unbutton's the hatch, to a covered-protected position, with a third press opening the hatches completely.
N: Multipurpose zoom (toggle). When the TC is unbuttoned, this will bring toggle the binocular view. When the TC is inside the turret this key will make the TC lean forward, essentially zooming in on that spot in the turret. In PERI mode this switches between high and low magnification.
ARROW LEFT / ARROW RIGHT: When in the TC's eye view F1, pressing these keys will cause the TC to face to the left or right of the main gun (turret).
ARROW UP: Multipurpose. When in the TC's eye view F1, pressing this key will cause the TC to face in the direction of the gun (turret). When in the TC's PERI or PERI-GPSE sight, initiate Override. Slews turret to PERI and passes control to commander.
ARROW DOWN: Multipurpose. When in the TC's eye view F1, pressing this key will cause the TC to face to the rear of the turret. When in the TC's PERI or PERI-GPSE sight. Align PERI to gun. Slews PERI to align with the Gun, and passes locks the PERI to the Gunner's view.
NUMPAD *: When the commander is overriding sets fire control system to "KW" mode, allowing the use of the Laser in
Driver related commands:
SHIFT + BACKSPACE: Shut down / startup engine (toggle). Orders the driver to shut off or start up the engine. If the TC is a platoon leader then it orders the platoon to execute a "short count" and simultaneously shut down or start up their engines.
W: Driver, move out. Instructs the driver to move forward (press again for increased speed.
S: Driver, stop. Instructs the driver to stop.
X: Driver, backup. Instructs the driver to reverse.
A: Driver, go left. Instructs the driver to go left (hold the key).
D: Driver, go right. Instructs the driver to go right (hold the key).
Gunner related commands:
BACKSPACE: Battle sight range (BSGT). This key represent the "BSGT" button on the commander's control panel which, when pressed, puts 1200m into the ballistic computer and dumps all lead calculations. This button should be used when the TC wants to gives a battle sight engagement, basically a tank becomes visible at 1200m or less. With battle sight in place, the gunner need not lase the target, he only needs to point and fire.
SPACE BAR: Multipurpose. Orders the gunner to fire at a target he is looking at when not overriding the gunner. If the TC is overriding the turret, the this will fire the main gun.
H: Hold fire. Orders the gunner to hold fire. If the TC is a platoon leader then it will also order the platoon to hold fire.
F: Fire at will. Orders the gunner to fire at will. If the TC is a platoon leader then it will also order the platoon to fire at will.
E: Engage. Orders the gunner to engage, and instructs the driver to take up a battle position. If the TC is a platoon leader then it orders the platoon to engage and take up a battle position in the direction of the user's view.
,: Manual mode. Orders to gunner to put the turret in manual mode.
.: Emergency mode. Orders the gunner to put the fire control system in emergency mode.
/: Normal mode. Orders the gunner to put the fire control system in normal mode (default). This is the only mode in which the Leopard 2A4 commander can override.
M: Coax / Main gun (toggle). Orders the gunner to toggle between the main gun and coax to engage targets.
SHIFT + ARROW LEFT: Gunner, scan left. Orders the gunner to put move the turret approximately 45 degrees to the left and scan for targets.
SHIFT + ARROW RIGHT: Gunner, scan right. Orders the gunner to put move the turret approximately 45 degrees to the right and scan for targets.
SHIFT + ARROW UP: Gunner, scan front. Orders the gunner to put the gun over the front and scan for targets.
Loader related commands:
INSERT: Fire, fire sabot. Orders the loader to start loading sabot after the next round is fired. Holding SHIFT and pressing this key will instruct the loader to reload this round type from the semi ready rack.
DELETE: Fire, fire HEAT. Orders the loader to start loading HEAT after the next round is fired. Holding SHIFT and pressing this key will instruct the loader to reload this round type from the semi ready rack.
HOME: Fire, fire (ammo type 3). Orders the loader to start loading ammo type 3 (if there is any) after the next round is fired. Holding SHIFT and pressing this key will instruct the loader to reload this round type from the semi ready rack.
END: Fire, fire (ammo type 4). Orders the loader to start loading ammo type 4 (if there is any) after the next round is fired. Holding SHIFT and pressing this key will instruct the loader to reload this round type from the semi ready rack.
SHIFT + PAGE DOWN: Reload all. Orders the tank crew to reload all weapons systems.
Note: You should be turret down before reloading the ready rack as the turret must be turned to the 5 o'clock position to access the stored rounds.