Eurosatory 2024 – Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0, the KNDS Deutschland proposal to the Bundeswehr
Leveraging the work done in the past years on the Leopard 2 itself, as well as some other developments, KNDS Deutschland unveiled at Eurosatory 2024 its Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 proposal
The need for an intermediate MBT solution waiting for the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), which entry into service is not forecasted before the 2040s, led KNDS Deutschland to develop a main battle tank (MBT) based on existing technologies, which answers the needs of today increasingly complex battlefield.
The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 unveiled in Paris is based on a basket-less uncrewed turret that exploits the work done on the Boxer 120 mm module seen at Eurosatory two years ago installed on the Tracked Boxer prototype. “We had to find a solution that does no longer require a basket, which would allow us to free a lot of space within the chassis to put the crew under the turret,” Dr. Axel Scheibel, KNDS Deutschland Chief Technology Officer (CTO), explained at the unveiling. While usually a gun rotates along a single trunnion, in the solution adopted by KNDS Deutschland we find two trunnions, which are installed over two pistons that are moved up and down providing the required elevation without any intrusion, considering of course the recoil length.
The Boxer solution seen at Eurosatory 2022 had a 20° maximum elevation, and Dr. Scheibel told EDR On-Line that improvements could be made. “On the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 we have 10° depression and around 25° maximum elevation,” he confirmed, showing that the system had evolved in the last two years. The overall elevation arc is around 35°, and the understanding is that this can be trimmed according to customers’ requirements between depression and maximum elevation.
In 2022 the Boxer turret was armed with the 120 mm L/44 gun; the new turret installed on the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is completely new as it is designed with growth potential in mind. As said, the new Leopard 2 version is being developed as an intermediate step towards the MGCS, therefore it is designed to accommodate all current and in development western tank guns, the latest versions of the 120 mm smoothbore, already available, the Ascalon 120, also unveiled at Eurosatory 2024, the Rheinmetall 130/51 mm gun, and finally in ascending calibre order, the Ascalon 140 which is 48-calibre long. This modularity will allow customers to start from an available 120 mm solution, being able to switch to what might become the future western calibre for MBT guns in due time, without replacing its MBT.
Compared to current Leopard 2s the crew of the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is reduced to three members, all hosted in the hull, two of them under the turret as this does not intrude. In fact, the hull roof has been raised by around 100 mm to improve ergonomy, the roof being now flat from the rear to where the front glacis starts. The crew access the tank via two sliding hatches located at the front, an emergency exit being available in the floor. EDR On-Line understood the crew stations are interchangeable, providing inherent redundancy should one of them fail. Resilience is a key factor when the crew is operating with indirect view only, all images being provided by the on-board computer that merges the images provided by the tank sensor suite. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and robotic systems take the place of the fourth crew member in handling simpler issues; however, AI is also exploited to reduce the crew workload, providing for example only needed information relative to the situation, thus decreasing the stress level as much as possible and allowing them to focus on their job. “We have also implemented degraded modes because we must remember that a tank is a fighting machine and sometimes something goes wrong,” Dr. Scheibel said, underlining how much backup systems increase survivability and durability. Of course, information is shared with other players within the deployed unit.
Survivability is obviously linked to situational awareness, as knowing as early as possible what is going on around the tank allows the crew to react properly. Beside multispectral sensors integrated into the MBT, the battle management system gets info also from unmanned assets, air and ground, which operate in the same area, although no reconnaissance UAVs seemed to be integrated into the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0, at least for the time being.
While anticipating enemy moves is one of the first forms of protection, the MBT remains a duel asset, therefore physical protection remains a key element. “Considering that we have now a remotely controlled turret that no longer hosts human beings, we had the opportunity to optimize the entire protection concept,” Dr. Scheibel stated. “During the last 28 months, besides all well-known threats that we have on the battlefield, new ones appeared, such as drones and loitering munitions, with a top-down attack profile. We thus tried to increase to protection concept also against these threats, while maintaining that against previously known threats.” They key issue is protecting the crew, and having moved it inside the hull, mostly under the turret, allows considerably increasing the shielding against top attack threats. “We have now three defeating lines against top attacks, the ceiling of the turret, then the space within the turret, and finally the roof of the chassis,” Axel Scheibel explained.
The chassis protection was slightly reoriented since KNDS Deutschland wants to be able to propose the new version as an update to existing Leopard 2s, from the A4 to the A8 standard. While the turret will obviously be replaced by the new one, the rear part of the hull will be kept as is while the front part will be modified, adding the two working places for the commander and gunner behind that of the driver; this means also improving the protection level around the crew citadel. The chance to retune protection levels in some areas of the hull, and in the turret, this now being unmanned, allowed to reduce the gross vehicle mass from the 65-67 tonnes of the latest versions of the Leopard 2 to less than 60 tonnes, depending of course on configuration. The front of the tank is protected by a combination of passive and reactive armour ensuring protection against “all kinetic energy projectiles.” Speaking to EDR On-Line after the presentation, Dr. Scheibel stated that the crew citadel can withstand the hit of 57 mm rounds, of course also from the side, this calibre representing the new direct fire threat from the most recent Russian infantry fighting vehicles such as the BMP B-19. This is obtained using only passive armour according to the speaker. The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 main protection against missiles and RPGs is the Trophy active protection system, which is being evolved also in a system capable to protect against UAVs.
Stepping to lethality, Dr. Scheibel makes it clear that the calibre to be used is purely a customer’s decision therefore, to make the turret compatible with current and future calibres the gun laying system must be able to cope with recoil forces and other strains. The ammunition flow must also be ensured, and here Dr. Scheibel explains that KNDS Deutschland looked out of the box, trying to find a better solution compared to conveyors or carousels used until now. Considering that bottles and cans are transported in a box, and that when coping with big scale products efficiency is a must, KNDS developed a box-like modular autoloader, with the ramming system at the centre and rows of ammunition right and left. According to KNDS Deutschland this allows quicker reloading compared current systems, a rate of 3 rounds in 10 seconds being declared, while available data on the Leclerc mention a 5-seconds reloading time. The current version of the autoloader hosts 20 rounds in two rows of 10 each, part right and part left of the rammer; EDR On-Line understood the number of rounds is based on the need to balance the turret, a key issue to avoid, among others, early wear out of the slip ring. Considering that the Boxer solution hosted 15 rounds with an autoloader 2.5 metres wide, the greater width of the MBT would have probably permitted to host more rounds, the system modularity also allowing adding an extra row. Should the new tank be fitted with a bigger calibre gun, balance will probably dictate once again the number of ready rounds available, however the number should not be dramatically different. The number of rounds on board remains an open issue: “We are looking at a solution to host extra 120 mm rounds in the hull to reach the number of 42, the same number of 120 mm ammunition in current Leopard 2s which is being considered the reference number, however considering the presence of a medium calibre weapon arming the remotely controlled weapon station installed on the turret roof, and that of antitank missiles, it is questionable if the 42-round capacity is still a must,” Dr. Scheibel told EDR On-Line. The spare main gun rounds can be loaded into the turret from the inside when the turret is set at an indexed position.
The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 turret hosts an RCWS armed with a 30 mm cannon chambered for 30×113 mm ammunition. A new development by the Munich-based company, it also hosts eight smoke grenade launchers, four per side, embedded in the structure itself. The gun is installed in the upper part of the turret, while in the lower part we find the commander’s panoramic sight. This solution allows reducing cost and avoid interferences between the sight and an added RCWS when two separate items are installed over the same turret. The availability of the 30 mm gun, albeit in the low recoil version, provides a hard-kill solution against most unarmoured and light/medium armoured ground targets as well as against UAS, something the typical 12.7 mm machine gun was unable to do; this allows avoiding consuming gun rounds against low value targets.
As for longer range engagements, a missile launcher is available, hosted on the left side of the turret. When not in use it lays inside the turret, the launcher being raised when needed. “The customer can opt for a ground-to-ground missile, such as an antitank one, which will be the typical choice,” Dr. Scheibel noted, “however my advice is that in some cases it would make sense to have a ground-to-air missile,” he added. The fact that only one missile launcher is installed is due to a compromise between the number of main gun ammunition and number of missiles, the mix remaining however a customer’s decision.
Lighter, more protected, and more lethal, this was the aim of KNDS Deutschland when starting the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 project. With a mass reduction of around 10% over the latest versions, a potential 140 mm main gun, and the crew protected against 57 mm ammunition all-round, plus the C-UAS increased protection, KNDS seems to have hit the target.
The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is powered by the usual MTU 873 diesel engine providing 1,500 hp coupled to the Renk HSWL 354 gearbox, its mass under 60 tonnes allowing it a power-to-mass ratio of 25 hp/t. It can reach a maximum speed on-road of over 65 km/h, range on road being 460 km. The chassis is 7.95 metres long, overall length with the turret at 12 o’clock armed with the 120/55 gun being 11.17 metres; it is 3.77 metres wide, the same as the latest Leopard 2s, heigh to turret roof being 2.44 metres, 0.2 metres less than the A7+.
As said, the version unveiled at Eurosatory 2024 is available to customers who want to buy new tanks but also to those who want to deeply upgrade their existing Leopard 2s. Not only, but the deep commonality with existing Leos also means reduced logistics and lifecycle benefits for those countries that are part of the LeoBen (Leopard-Benutzerstaaten), the Leopard User Nations club founded in the 1969, over half a century ago. “Currently the turret of the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is at TRL 5 with the 120 mm gun, and in the next 24 months we look forward developing the entire chassis in order to have a fully functional demonstrator in 2026,” Dr. Axel Scheibel concluded. Awaiting the MGCS, the Leopard 2 is not yet ready for retirement, albeit in a very different form, will it be named Leopard 2A9, Leopard 2-X or something else. With the German Army the obvious first potential customer targeted by KNDS.
Photos by P. Valpolini
