In news– The Leopard 2 is one of the world’s leading battle tanks. Until now, both Ukraine and Russia have used Soviet-era tanks in battle, and the Leopards would offer a big step forward in capability.
About the tank-
- The Leopard 2 is a 3rd generation main battle tank originally developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s for the West German army.
- The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West German Army.
- It is used by the militaries of more than a dozen other European nations, as well as by the armies of countries as far apart as Canada and Indonesia.
- It has seen service in conflicts in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Syria.
- The tank, which is powered by a diesel engine, features night-vision equipment and a laser range finder that can measure distance to an object, enabling it to better aim at a moving target while traveling over rough terrain.
- There are multiple iterations of the Leopard 2 with different features and designs.
- Military experts said that the chief advantage of the Leopard 2 was the quantity that could be sent to Ukraine and the relative ease of repair and logistics.
- In addition, because several European countries use the vehicles, multiple nations could contribute either the tanks themselves, or spare parts, training capacity or logistics.
