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Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
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Enjoying your site, as always and happy to see it continues growing.
However, I noticed something about the Leopard 1 in your PDF I just opened.
The entry for the Leopard 1A4 states:
"The Leopard 1A4 was the last version of the Leopard 1 used by the German Army (the German Army switched completely to the Leopard 2 series soon thereafter), but many other countries used and are still using the 1A4."
Under the A5 it is written:
"In 1980, though no longer being used by Germany, Krauss-Maffei felt the Leopard 1 design still had some life in it, and began a large set of modifications that would lead to the Leopard 1A5."
Both of these statements are contrary to what I read and experienced myself. First of all, the A4 was not the last variant used by Germany. In fact, Germany used hundreds of 1A5 from 1987 onward, with 737 of them remaining in service after the (historical) army reforms of 1994. The last battalions of Leopard 1A5 were deactivated or transferred to the Leopard 2 in 2003 (likely most just deactivated).
The Bundeswehr concentrated all Leopard 1A5 in the brigades of I (GE/NL) and IV (GE) Corps, while II (GE/US) corps was exclusively equipped with Leopard 2A4 in 1994. So, when I travelled to the "new federal states" for my training as a gunner on the Marder 1A3, I could see Leopard 1A5s of our sister brigade serving in what some years ago had been communist barracks of the NVA.
Additionally, the Leopard 1A4 never served, to my knowledge, in foreign armies. The A4 was the last lot delivered to the Bundeswehr, exclusively, and included better optics than its direct predecessor the A3. All 250 A4s were taken out of service in 1989 - so 2 years after the A5 entered service - and most of them were sold. But those 235 A4 sold were downgraded to the A3 model before that. The remainder were used for target practice, went into museums or were destroyed as part of CFE compliance.
One addition to the Leopard 1A5 and the A6 program: Historically, two A6 were built as research projects. Both received the 120 mm gun, a modification that was made possible for all A5 models as part of the general A5 upgrade plan. So during the Twilight War, we might see regular A5 models with a gun upgrade, likely named Leopard 1A5A2, since the Leopard 1A5A1 was a distinct subvariant of the A5 equipped with the new SEM 80/90 radios that had already been installed into the Leopard 1A1A4 and 1A1A3 (which differs from the 1A1A4 in not having the passive thermal imaging device "PZB200").
Both Leopard 1A6 prototypes also received a fire extinguishing system for the crew area, but differed otherwise. The first, VT-2, had improved turret roof armor installed, infrared signature reduction of the undercarriage and likely its chassis and improved frontal hull armor. The second prototype, VT-5, received none of these upgrades, but instead received an improved commander's sight. This was meant to improve hunter-killer capabilities of the A6 model, which was likely to be used to support infantry units in defensive operations: essentially the Leopard 1A6 would have been the successor to the Jagdpanzer Kanone, the tank destroyer armed with a 90 mm that was still in service back in 1987, when the A6 research project was going on.
Okay, that went to become a longer post than intended. But I did research on the Leopard 1 recently and it's such an interesting piece of tech.