Quote:
Originally Posted by Sledgehammer427
Doesn't the Leo-2A6 have the 120mm gun?
I like the design but you Germans have a thing for shot traps on your turrets.
I'm referencing, of course, those angular additions on the front of the turret.
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I was speaking of the Leo-1, which never had the 120.
The Leo2-A6 has the L55, which is the new and longer version of the 120mm Rheinmetall. The older one was the L44.
The shot trap may be an issue with stones and balls, but not with Sabot projectiles - these will penetrate into the armour where they hit it, they will not bounce off. There are pictures were gun tubes had been split from the tip with the opening and then along the wall of the tube, as if it had been cut by a huge knife.
Those "angular additions" may look irritating, but I am sure the designers have not overseen something like a "shot trap". For some reason the Leo-2A5/6 is considered to be one of the best protected tanks in the world, so...
The thing is called MEXAS, Modular Expandable Armor System, the wedge is hollow and should ignite HE warheads before they reach the solid turret armor, and to break up Sabot. The siurface consists of layers of ceramics and Keflar and should have a more than doubled resistence than steel plates of same weight. The hollow inside of the plates at the turret's sides sometimes even get used as storages. The Mexas is a German invention and got attached to several other German vehicles as well, for example the Fennek, the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (what a beast, the best of its kind in the world!), and several smaller vehicle types in Afghanistan. The Canadian Leopard-1s also got equipped with it.
An advanced new version of Mexas gets used for the latest German vehicle designs like Puma and Boxer.