Leopard 1

[TankHunter]

I have been toying with the Leopard 1 lately and have recently been wondering about something. The Leopard 1's armor is almost non-existant, so it is suicide to go toe to toe with any T series tanks. This leads me to think that the tank was designed more as a tank destroyer than as a tank. Or at least it was intended to fight as a tank destroyer. In other words to fight in ambushes against Soviet armor and then relocate to a new position after the ambush was completed. This appears to be the only way to last any time in it.

So, am I wrong in this view of the vehicle? What were the German tactics involving the vehicle?

[rump]

Well, it's a 60 design, so before the T-72. It has excellent cross country capabilities and was very fast for its time. The firecontrol system is also better than that of the T-55, T-62 and T-64.

I believe it was (at least Dutch) doctrine to fight from prepared battle positions, dug in.

Fighting T series (before T-72) shouldn't be a problem.

- Rump

[Hedgehog]

Eisenschwein would be a good person to ask.

(Being an ex Leo 1 Bod)

[Ssnake]

The Leo 1 - like the AMX 30 - was made to fight the T-55. The armor was designed at a time when no known armor was practical to defeat HEAT rounds of the time. Consequently the decision was made that since you couldn't protect against it anyway, you could just as well trim the armor down to a base level that would help against other weapons of its time; as a trade-off, superior mobility (in its time) could be achieved. Later, the Deisenroth add-on armor was applied to protect the flanks against 30mm BMP-2 ammo.

In short, the Leo 1 was designed to defeat the T-55 at superior range, and with superior reaction speed in a duel situation. That it will do well.

Finally, the Leo 1 followed the explicit goal to reactivate the industrial know-how for aror production in the German industry. Again, this mission was fully accomplished.

So, the Leo 1 must be seen in the context of its time, both in mission and technical capabilities.

[Volcano]

The Leo 1A5 can easily hold its own against T-72s even at 1.5 : 1, just by the advantage of the rate of fire and thermals alone. In any case, it is a close matchup.

[TankHunter]

Thanks for the replies

[W@NKER]

Fire once or maybe twice and then change position. then repeat.

mobility is your friend.

[Companion]

About the armor, the uparmored turret is actually decent enough to defeat 100mm/115mm and even old 125mm KE rounds at normal battle ranges.

(Well, hull is still paper)

And with AI tendency to expend KE rounds, even if ineffective, before switching to much more deadly CE rounds, allows Leos to go "tank mode" and slug it out when need to.