In Germany, the main battle tank "Leopard - 2" is known as one of the best in the world, which competes for this title with such proven world projects as the American "M1 Abrams" and the British "Challenger 2". However, this reputation as a nearly invincible tank has met with setbacks on the Syrian battlefield, and has left Berlin in a uniquely awkward position in the nationwide dispute with fellow NATO member Turkey.
The fact is that Ankara offered to release a German political prisoner in exchange for Germany modernizing an older model Leopard 2A4 tank in service with the Turkish army, which turned out to be so amazingly vulnerable in battle. However, on January 24, public outrage over reports that Turkey was using its Leopard 2s to kill Kurdish fighters in the Syrian enclaves of Afrin and Manbij forced Berlin to freeze the tank deal based on the hostage's release.
Destruction of a Turkish tank in Afrin.
The Leopard 2 is often compared to its closest contemporary, the M1 Abrams; in truth, the two designs share similar characteristics, including a weight of over sixty tons of advanced composite armor, 1,500 horsepower engines capable of reaching speeds of forty miles. per hour and, for some models, the same forty-four caliber 120-mm main gun produced by the German concern Rheinmetall. Both types can easily destroy most tanks built by Russia at medium and long ranges, at which they are unlikely to be reached by return Russian fire from standard 125 mm guns. In addition, they have the best sights with excellent thermal imaging and magnification characteristics that will most likely help them quickly detect and engage the enemy. Historically, this advantage has proven to be a more decisive factor in winning a tank war than even total firepower.
Tests conducted in Greece showed that Leopards and Abrams in motion hit a 2.3-meter target, respectively, nineteen and twenty times out of twenty, while the Soviet T-80 tank hit the target only eleven times.
The slight differences between the designs of the two Western tanks show different national philosophies. The Abrams has a noisy 1,500-horsepower turbo that starts up faster, while the Leopard 2's diesel engine gives you more range before the next fill-up.
The Abrams achieved some of its unusual offensive and defensive capabilities through the use of depleted uranium ammunition and armor technologies that were politically unacceptable to the Germans. Therefore, later Leopard 2A6 models are now equipped with faster fifty-five caliber guns in order to compensate for the difference in penetration, while the Leopard 2A5 is equipped with an additional wedge of spaced armor on the turret to better absorb enemy fire.
In addition, the Germans, exporting weapons, may have doubts about the upcoming deal. Berlin places wider restrictions on such sales, at least compared to France, the US or Russia. For example, Berlin rejected a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia to sell four hundred to eight hundred Leopard 2 tanks due to documents on human rights violations in the Middle East and in particular because of its bloody war in Yemen. But the Leopard-2 tank is in service in eighteen countries, including many NATO members. In response to this, the Saudis simply ordered about four hundred additional American Abrams. This situation brings us back to the issue of relations with Turkey, a NATO member country with which Berlin has important historical and economic ties, but which also passed through military coups and has waged a controversial campaign against Kurdish separatists for decades.
In the early 2000s, with a more favorable political climate, Berlin sold 354 of its old Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ankara. They represented a major upgrade of this combat vehicle compared to the less protected M60 Patton tanks that make up the bulk of Turkey's armored forces.
However, there have long been rumors that Berlin agreed to such a sale on the condition that German tanks would not be used in Turkey's counterinsurgency against the Kurds. The question of whether such a fact actually took place or not is still hotly disputed. What is certain, however, is that Leopard 2 was kept away from the Kurdish conflict and was instead stationed in northern Turkey, opposite Russia. However, in the fall of 2016, Turkish Leopard 2s from the Second Armored Brigade were finally deployed to the Syrian border in order to support Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey's intervention in the war against ISIS.
It must be said that before the arrival of the Leopard, about a dozen Turkish M-60 tanks had already been destroyed in this area by both ISIS fighters and Kurdish missiles. Turkish military commentators have expressed hope that the more modern Leopard will perform much better.
The 2A4 was the last of the Cold War-era Leopard 2 tanks. They were designed to fight against relatively dense military units in a fast-paced defensive war against Soviet tank columns, rather than to survive improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and missiles fired from ambush by insurgents in long counter-guerrilla campaigns, where every tank lost was a political problem. The 2A4 tanks retain the older, angular turrets, which provide less protection against modern anti-tank missiles. This is especially true in the more vulnerable armored sectors at the rear and sides, an even greater problem in counterinsurgency warfare where an attack can come from any angle.
This state of affairs was dramatically illustrated in December 2016, when evidence emerged that large numbers of Leopard 2 tanks had been destroyed in the fierce fighting for the ISIS-held town of Al Bab - fighting that Turkish military leaders described as a "trauma" according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. A document published online indicates that ISIS appears to have destroyed ten of its previously thought to be invincible Leopard 2 tanks; five by anti-tank missiles, two by mines or IEDs, one by rocket or mortar fire, and the remaining for unknown reasons.
Photos posted on this source confirm the destruction of at least eight tanks. One photograph shows that Leopard 2 was apparently destroyed by an armored kamikaze truck filled with explosives. Another tank had a collapsed turret. The remains of three Leopards can be seen in the area of the same hospital near Al Bab, along with other damaged Turkish armored vehicles. It seems that the vehicles were mainly hit in the very underbelly - the least protected part of the vehicle, as well as in the side armor with the help of IEDs and anti-tank missiles of the AT-7 Metis and AT-5 Konkurs complexes.
There is no doubt that the fighting style adopted by the Turkish army when using German tanks probably contributed to these losses. Rather than being used as a combined strike force alongside mutually supporting infantry, they were deployed to the rear and turned into long-range fire weapons while Turkish-allied Syrian militias, reinforced by Turkish special forces, fought assault battles. Thus, left isolated in exposed firing positions without adequate nearby infantry with which to form a well-defended perimeter, the Turkish Leopards found themselves vulnerable to ambush. The same tactics have led to the loss of numerous Saudi tanks in Yemen, as you can see in this video.
Destruction of Abrams by Houthis in Yemen,
In contrast, the more modern Leopard 2 tanks in Afghanistan saw quite a few battles with Taliban militants. These were the Canadian 2A6M (with enhanced mine protection and even floating “safety seats”) and the Danish 2A5. Although some were damaged by mines, all were returned to service, although one crew member of the Danish Leopard 2 was fatally wounded by an IED in 2008. However, combat commanders praise these tanks for their mobility and accurate and timely fire support during major combat operations in southern Afghanistan.
In 2017, Germany began rebuilding its tank fleet, creating an even more advanced tank model, the Leopard 2A7V, that would likely survive a counterinsurgency environment. Now Ankara is pressing Berlin to modernize the protection on its Leopard-2 tanks, especially since the introduction into service of the domestically produced Altai tank has been repeatedly delayed.
The Turkish military not only needs additional armor protection against IEDs, but also an active defense system (APS) that can detect attacking missiles and their launch site, as well as jam them or even shoot them down. Recently, the US Army authorized the installation of the Israeli Trophy ASZ, which has proven its effectiveness in combat in a tank brigade equipped with M1 Abrams. Meanwhile, Leopard-2 manufacturer Rheinmetall has unveiled its own anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile defense system, which supposedly poses less risk of harming friendly troops with its missile defense devices.
However, German-Turkish relations have deteriorated sharply, especially after Erdogan initiated a lengthy prosecution of thousands of alleged plotters following a failed military coup attempt in August 2016. In February 2017, German-Turkish citizen Deniz Yücel, a correspondent for the magazine Die Welt, was arrested by Turkish authorities, allegedly for being a pro-Kurdish spy. His detention caused outrage in Germany. Ankara pointedly announced that if the modernization of Leopard-2 continues, Yucel will be released back to Germany. Although Berlin publicly insisted it would never agree to such a swap, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel quietly began to move toward authorizing the tank modernization deal in an attempt to improve relations between the countries amid what appeared to be a suspicious blackmail scheme. Gabriel simply presented the deal as a measure to protect the lives of Turkish soldiers from ISIS.
However, in mid-January 2018, Turkey launched an offensive against the Kurdish enclaves in Afrin and Manbij in northwestern Syria. The attack was largely driven by Turkish fears that the Pentagon's announcement of recruiting Kurds to create a "border security force" to continue the fight against ISIS would result in effective Kurdish control of the Syrian border leading to the de facto creation of a Kurdish state that would extend into Turkey.
However, photos soon appeared on social networks showing Leopard 2 tanks being used to destroy Kurdish positions in Afrin, where several dozen civilian casualties were reported. In addition, on January 21, the Kurdish group YPG published a video on YouTube showing a Turkish Leopard 2 hit by Konkurs anti-tank missiles. However, it is impossible to determine whether the tank was hit; the missile may have struck the front armor of the Leopard 2, which is estimated to be 590-690 millimeters thick of rolled homogeneous armor (RHA) on the 2A4 tank, while the two types of Konkurs missiles could penetrate six or eight hundred millimeters RSL.
In any case, parliamentarians from both Germany's left and Merkel's right-wing Christian Democratic Union reacted with outrage at the Turkish move, with one MP calling the Turkish offensive a violation of international law. On January 25, the Merkel administration was forced to announce that the modernization of Leopard 2 tanks was, at least for now, off the agenda. Ankara views the deal as merely on hold, and ritual rhetoric from Berlin suggests it may return to the deal at a more politically opportune time.
Sebastien Roble n holds a master's degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university Peace Corps instructor in China. He also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes about security and military history for War Is Boring.
Impressive footage of the destruction on February 3, 2018 by a Syrian Kurdish crew (reportedly female, which is confirmed by the voices heard on the video) from the YPG units with a missile from the Fagot or Konkurs anti-tank missile system of the Leopard 2A4 tank of the Turkish army near the village of Heftar in the Bilbin region near Afrin (Syria), where Turkish troops are advancing. The missile hit the tank in the front left part of the hull, right in the area of the main ammunition rack of the Leopard 2A4 tank, which caused the detonation of the ammunition, blowing the tank into pieces.
The Turkish army confirmed the death of six servicemen as a result of an attack on a tank in the Afrin area by “PYD/PKK terrorists” (judging by the photo, the explosion of the tank also destroyed the car next to it).
From the bmpd side, we note that which once again clearly demonstrates that the Leopard 2 tanks, which were previously so highly rated, have a fatal design defect in placing the main part of the ammunition in the front left part of the hull, with weak protection on the sides, which makes the Leopard 2 a “bomb on tracks” as if not yet to a greater extent than the Soviet tanks of the T-64/72/80 family. The destruction of Leopard 2A4 tanks as a result of the explosion of an ammunition rack in the front of the hull was the first time on tanks lost by the Turkish army during combat operations against the forces of the Islamic State near the Syrian city of Al-Bab in December 2016.
Kurdish video of tank destruction:
A Leopard 2A4 tank of the Turkish army destroyed by a Syrian Kurdish ATGM crew near the village of Heftar in the Bilbin region near Afrin (Syria), 02/03/2018 (c) twitter.com/LunaticRizgar
Last week, one of the most famous German weekly publications, Stern, published an article by the famous German journalist and military observer Gernot Kramper, dedicated to the combat debut of the Leopard-2 tanks. In his article, Kramper calls the results of the first serious battle of the best European tank nothing less than a disaster...
The reason for such harsh criticism was the destruction of two Leopard-2A4 tanks of the Turkish army on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Al-Bab. Krumper notes that three tanks were removed by ISIS terrorists in just two days. At the same time, two tanks, according to the observer, were completely destroyed along with their crews, while the third could not be restored, but the crew escaped with severe wounds and burns.
According to the journalist, Leopard-2 had already entered the combat zone before. Thus, as part of the Canadian troops, a more modern model of the German vehicle visited Afghanistan, but things did not go beyond a few minor skirmishes with the Taliban. It is worth noting that even then German tanks received an unsatisfactory assessment from military experts. The reason was a mine accident in which one of the crew members was injured. The military noted that explosions of the Israeli Merkava tank, a traditional competitor of the Leopard, and more powerful mines and land mines caused much less damage to the equipment and crew.
Under Al-Bab, everything happened much more tragically. Krumper believes that the destruction of the Leopard model 2A4 by the TOW2 anti-tank missile system is quite predictable, since this model does not have any effective means of protection against such weapons. However, this was only the first time a tank was attacked, and it was then that the crew managed to survive. In two other cases, the pride of German tank building was fatally attacked by obsolete Soviet Fagot ATGMs...
The same Turkish Leopards in Syria
A German journalist notes with horror that the 2A4 modification began to be produced in the mid-80s of the last century, but it is destroyed by missiles at least 15 years older. That is, even then Germany, a country with the best military-industrial complex in Europe, was inferior to older Soviet weapons. “Now Leopards of this modification, purchased by many countries around the world, including European ones, are being destroyed by primitive wire-guided missiles!” Kramper laments. At the end of the article, the military observer clarifies that this modification is considered obsolete in the German army and is not used, which means that in the event of a possible conflict with Russia, one can hope that German tanks will not be helpless lambs...
At the same time, in neighboring Syria, the Russian T-90 tank of the government army easily withstood a hit from an PTRS...
Krumper names the poor training of tank crews from Middle Eastern countries as the main reason for the defeat of NATO tanks. He directly states that the level of training of Turkish tank crews is much lower than that of the militants’ armor-piercing fighters. However, this does not negate the fact that in similar situations, Russian technology allows crews to make mistakes without critical risk to life.
P.S. In Syria, in a couple of days, more than a dozen skins have already been removed from these Leopards.
And in what climate and on what soil should this 75-ton Wunderwaffe be used? On Russian black soil and Belarusian forests? On the autobahn only. What is its cost and how many hours does it take to make it? Under it we need miracle railway platforms for transportation, miracle bridges, miracle repairs, miracle dirt and many more miracles unknown to us. Either a Douro or Bertha cannon is transported on several echelons, or a 170-ton Mouse is sculpted for the factory yard. The Eastern tourist expedition in 1941 did not teach the Germans anything.
The other large-scale attack by Turkish troops on El-Bab, an extremely fortified stronghold of militants of the radical Islamist group "Islamic State"* (IS, ISIS - editor's note), located in northern Syria, which ended the other day, ended in another, natural failure. During yesterday's attempt to occupy the city outskirts, the Turkish armed forces lost about 50 people, several light armored vehicles and once again hurt the pride of their own armored units - the Leopard-2 main battle tanks.
Today, the militants of the Caliphate reported on two more new tanks destroyed on January 20, 2017. They confirmed their words with a number of photographs, once again dispelling the notorious myth about the invulnerability of German armored vehicles.
One of the photographs of Turkish Leopards recently destroyed near El-Bab. Photo source: bmpd.livejournal.com
The reason for the destruction of the damaged tanks caught in the frame turned out to be a banal detonation of ammunition. Because of it, the Leopards were literally gutted from the inside, the blast wave tearing off the armored vehicles' turrets, a massive frontal part and part of the side. All this happened despite the fact that, according to the designers, German tanks are perfectly protected from such, critical for the crew, detonation of shells by removing the ammunition into the outboard space located in the aft niche of the turret.
In theory, when the shells placed in it ignite, the ejector panel covering the shell niche is fired off, and the tank crew calmly waits for the ammunition to burn out behind a special armor curtain that separates the interior of the armored vehicle from the ammunition. But in practice everything is completely different. Turkish Leopards, under fire from militants in Syria, receive monstrous damage and literally fly into pieces. But for what reason?
The main drawback of the German Leopards in service with the Turkish army is that not all of the ammunition is carried into the side compartment, but only 15 unitary shots. The remaining 27 shells are located in the tank’s hull, to the left of the driver. That is, if an anti-tank missile successfully hits the additional ammunition stowage, the Leopard has every chance of instantly becoming a mass grave for its crew. Which is wonderful and is confirmed by recent footage taken near El-Bab.
The layout of the German tank "Leopard-2", which clearly indicates the placement of part of the ammunition in the fighting compartment of the tank. Photo source: foto-transporta.ru
As can be seen from the published photograph, the destruction of one of the Leopards was caused by damage to the ammunition located on the left side of the hull. The ignition of the shells in the fighting compartment naturally ended with their detonation, which tore out not only the turret, but also, as mentioned above, the frontal part, as well as part of the side. And, if the turret torn off during the explosion of ammunition looks, no matter how strange it may sound, quite natural, then the flying off forehead of the Leopard makes you think about a lot of things.
The tank turret, as one of the heaviest elements of an armored vehicle, is mainly supported by the hull due to its mass. Therefore, it is not surprising that when shells detonate inside the tank, it is the turret that is torn from its place. Similar damage, for example, occurred during the wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Syria on the T-64 and T-72 tanks, in which a significant part of the ammunition is also located inside the fighting compartment. However, Soviet vehicles were not torn apart when ammunition detonated. Yes, the T-64 and T-72 lost their turrets, but their massive frontal armored part, which, according to the design of any modern tank, must be extremely rigidly attached to the hull, was not torn off by the explosion. Unlike the Turkish tanks destroyed near El-Bab.
"Leopard" with a torn off frontal part as a result of an ammunition explosion. Photo source: bmpd.livejournal.com
In my own words, the strength of the tank hull cannot withstand the internal explosion of a couple or two kilograms of explosives. All this can only mean one thing - the German Leopards turned out to be designed with serious errors. This means that armored vehicles, which are positioned by some military experts as the best in the world, are far from being so flawless, at least in terms of combat survivability. Which, however, has already been confirmed by the previous combat use of Leopards near El-Bab. German tanks managed to burn out completely due to the ignition of ammunition in the side niche, even with the normal operation of the ejector panel.
One of the Turkish “Leopards” that burned down near El-Bab, with the ejector panel of the aft turret niche activated. Photo source: bmpd.livejournal.com
* — The organization’s activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by decision of the Supreme Court.
Photo source: ru.wikipedia.org/böhringer friedrich...
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