Increased Performance and Enhanced Service Life Solution for Leopard 2A4
In recent years while the presence of the main battle tanks is widely discussed, it is assumed that the main battle tanks will serve in the inventory for 40-50 more years as armoured chivalries. Especially, the Gulf War and ongoing NATO operations at Afghanistan proved that tanks are indispensable at open field. Therefore, in today’s world, many countries are trying to increase the capabilities of their MBT fleet which stay in their army inventories. As a result of the recent operations, it is again seen that main battle tanks are indispensable as experienced in the real warfare conditions. Contrary to expectations, nowadays the area of usage of the main battle tanks is getting more common. Main battle tanks have also been deployed even in asymmetric warfare which is the main tactical approach of international peace missions.
M60 and Leopard 1 MBTs in the inventory of the Turkish Land Forces were successfully modernized in the last decade. With the experience gained in these projects, ASELSAN designed and developed all electronics, electro-optical and electro-mechanical subsystems of the ALTAY MBTs and integrated these systems to the prototype of the ALTAY MBT. In the design of the ASELSAN Systems, ASELSAN’s utmost priority was to develop systems having minimum Life Cycle Cost and maximum operational availability. The Systems which are developed for ALTAY MBT is integrated to Leopard 2A4 MBT and this prototype MBT is being tested under all battlefield conditions with the supervision of Turkish Armed Forces. Hardest scenarios like moving tank to moving target in APG/Sinus tracks were tested, extremely high first shot hit probabilities are achieved during the test. These firing trials show that the warfare performance of the new upgraded Leopard 2A4 is higher than the modern MBTs.
Leopard 2A4 MBTs are manufactured in mid 70’s and commonly available in European countries’ inventories. Although they have superior analog technology compared to its opponents, because of the obsolescence problem of spare parts and closed architecture of analog systems, Leopard 2A4 MBTs are not considered as modern MBTs anymore. In order to improve the performance of the Leopard 2A4 MBTs and make it more compatible to the changing warfare requirements, some of them are modernized to Leopard 2A5 at the end of 90’s. The important points in this modernization are thermal observing capability of commander, electrical gun and turret drives instead of hydraulic drives and improved protection in the frontal arc for symmetric warfare conditions. Although Leopard 2A5 MBTs have some new technologies compared to Leopard 2A4, they both have almost similar electronics and electro-optics which are not synchronized with the today’s MBT technology. Furthermore, more than 30 year old electronics and electro-optics lead to the obsolescence problem and this causes weakness in the operational use of the MBT.
Since the existing systems on the original Leopard 2A4 MBT are very old, most of the systems are not manufactured any more. Moreover the components’ price (which can be found in the market) is 10-25 times higher than their normal price. Also as Leopard 2 user countries mentioned, the critical components’ -which are not manufactured and available only by limited suppliers with a limited amount- price is higher than the system’s price which these critical parts are used in. Hence the life cycle cost of Leopard 2A4 MBTs is significantly increased.
ASELSAN’s system solutions which is developed for Turkish Main Battle Tank, ALTAY, is integrated to Leopard 2A4 MBT and this configuration is called MBT Upgrade Solution “Next Generation”. This configuration not only increases the performance of the Leopard 2s, but also proposes a solution to the increasing logistic costs of the Leopard 2 users. Moreover with this configuration, the life cycle of the MBT is increased significantly and the life cycle cost is reduced drastically.
Moreover, ASELSAN is very open to technology transfer for the manufacturing of the sub-systems and to provide equipment for the maintenance capability of the Leopard 2 MBTs. With the enhanced test capability, and modular system design philosopy based on the maximum parts commonality in different LRUs, ASELSAN solution provides Leopard 2A4 users to diagnose system problems, isolate and replace all the LRUs and some SRUs which could be done at MBT system level on their own. This approach ensures that ASELSAN’s solution will minimize the maintenance problems and the combined efforts for the maintenance and training.
MBT Upgrade Solution “Next Generation” is equipped with ASELSAN’s Next Generation Fire Control System which is based on two independent periscopes - one for gunner and the other for commander-each can perform all tank fire control functions, and also can take over each other’s fire control functions. Superior image quality electro-optical periscopes managed by the gunner and the commander provide both gunner and commander accurate target engagement in day, night and severe weather conditions. In case of a failure of one of two periscope systems, the tank shall be operational in the battlefield with full performance, a future that’s beyond the capability of the current fire control systems. The fire control functions, ballistic calculations, stabilization algorithms and all other computations are performed by both Gunner’s and Commander’s Periscopes. Thanks to automated system functions and unique simplified user interface both for gunner and commander, training is further simplified significantly when compared to Leopard 2A4. Apart from the classical fire control systems, Next Generation FCS includes Inertial Navigation Sensor to achieve a very high First Shot Hit Probability in Moving Tank /Moving Target scenarios. Based on the extremely accurate automatic target tracking function, and target state estimation capability depending on the inertial navigation sensor, this configuration has an extremely high hit probability against rotary wing aircrafts either using Gunner’s or Commander’s Periscope.
In order to eliminate the danger of a hydraulic fluid fire, achieve lower noise level with lower power consumption and lower heat generation and also to improve reliability and attain lower maintenance, the MBT is equipped with Electrical Gun Turret Drives. To obtain high hit probability on moving tank scenarios, gun/turret control and stabilization is achieved by the Gunner’s and Commander’s Periscopes through the electric drives.
A Battlefield Management System (BMS) is also integrated to the MBT to support the commander in situational awareness, collaborative planning, fast and precise decision making. Use of BMS shall ensure fast and accurate acquisition, exchange and the use of the battlefield information providing a clear and accurate representation of the commander. BMS allows tailoring of the situational representation to the needs of commanders at each level of command providing support for planning, execution and after mission evaluation.
Driver’s Vision System (DVS) composed of a Forward Thermal Camera, Rear Thermal Camera and Rear CCD Camera is also integrated to the MBT. DVS provides the driver 24 hour maneuvering capability under severe weather and harsh battlefield conditions. In addition, DVS gives the MBT the ability to maintain continuous mission operations while providing a safe driving environment through enhanced situational awareness.
Furthermore, the MBT is equipped with a Remotely Operated Stabilized Weapon Station (RWS) that enables the tank to defend itself against air and ground attacks, can also be used in urban areas against asymmetric warfare. Depending on warfare requirements, 12.7 mm Heavy Machine Gun, 40mm Automatic Grenade Launcher or 7.62mm Light Machine Gun can be interchangeably installed. RWS is fully integrated with FCS and all the controls are accomplished by the commander by his own FCS user interface. Moreover, the RWS can also be controlled by the loader using his own user interface and by RWS’s own thermal sight.
The MBT is also equipped with Laser Warning Receivers (LWR) for enhanced survivability. LWR is a state of the art threat warning system to detect, classify, identify and give warning of laser threats (Laser Range Finders, Laser Designators and Laser Beam Riders) aiming on the platform. LWR immediately enables the smoke launcher system to mask the MBT by smoke from the hostile force. LWR is closely integrated to the FCS, so that the commander and/or gunner periscopes together with the main/ secondary weapon shall automatically slew to the threat direction detected by the LWR and enable the gunner and/ or commander to immediately engage on the hostile force.
ASELSAN has also state of the art solutions for other subsystems like Auxiliary Power Unit and Cooling Systems for the needs of the modern MBTs.
* Leopard MBT is a trademark and design of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH.
