Inna Andalitskaya11:54, 06/30/24

Soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the 33rd Separate Mechanized Brigade showed in detail how they work in the tank and how they improved the vehicle.

The Ukrainian crew told us something about the German Leopard that their foreign colleagues did not know about this tank. This is stated in the Army TV story dedicated to the modern Leopard 2 tank.

The tank is currently in service with the 33rd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Tank crew commander Andrey noted that they first met the Leopard in August last year. At first, the tank seemed like an exotic giant, but after training abroad, the crew confidently mastered the controls and now even knows how to do things that foreign instructors did not tell them.

Driver-mechanic Oleg said that the tank has a 12-cylinder diesel engine, but in emergency situations it can run on kerosene or gasoline. Its capacity is 1.5 thousand horsepower. The tank is protected from below by a solid and blind armor plate. At the same time, according to the military man, the tank had to be equipped with special structures to protect against drones.

“There is electronic warfare against drones here, and the cumulative protection on the sides has been improved. We have already delivered this ourselves, we tried to make “Mangals”, but here the design is such – both the turret and the gun. They have not yet come up with a design so that it can somehow fold and be driven into the landing,” the driver-mechanic said.

When asked how difficult it is to put the tracks in place in this tank, he noted that “using the folk method, it ’s not difficult, but if you use the scientific method, you need to spend a little time. According to Oleg, they use a simple and fairly quick way to put the tracks on.” As the people say, the caterpillars attack the place themselves. Foreigners didn’t show us this, they didn’t know it and didn’t do it themselves,” he noted.

Gunner Valery said that a moving target can be easily pursued using a computer system: “If the target is moving, I press the “cheburashka” button (the tank’s turret and gun control system) for 3-6 seconds, the computer catches it and holds the target itself. I can drive away, approach, turn around, but the gun will only be in one direction (towards the target),” he emphasized.

The gunner said that the gun can be loaded with various shells, depending on the target. He showed the place in the tank where the ammunition is stored: “This is our “Santa Barbara”, because there is everything here. That’s why we call it that. There are different types of shells here. For example, for the infantry – shrapnel from 1,100 balls in one shell, which fly apart when exploded. There are armor-piercing shells,” he explained.

According to the military man, the tank does not have an automatic gun loader, it is done manually. As it turned out, the tank crew consists of people of peaceful professions: an energy worker, a woodworker, a truck driver and a minibus driver.

Cooperation between Ukraine and Germany

As of April this year, Germany has transferred 55 Leopard 1A5 and 18 Leopard 2A6 tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In particular, in June, Germany transferred a large defense aid package to Ukraine, which included HIMARS, air defense systems, and tanks.

It is also known that the German defense concern Rheinmetall plans to produce hybrids of Leopard tanks and Skyranger air defense tanks at a plant in Ukraine. The prototype has already been presented in Paris at the 2024 Eurosatory arms exhibition.

(C)UNIAN 2024