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Response to "M-60 only a stop gap tank and that the Leopard is top quality..."
.....I was talking only about a limit period of time so we could make a fair
comparison. 1953-1973. Also I did place the Leopard as #3 on my list of all
time best tanks for it's day, so I couldn't be that far off base. lol
The 55 tonne Leopard was fairly close to the 50 tonne Chieftain in HP to
weight ratio, but the ballistic protection was inferior on the Leopard and
it.... "relied heavily on sloped armour and agility for protection."
Leopard was a great tank, no doubt about that, but short of the same quality
as the Chieftain.
The UK believed a 30 mm Rarden could penetrate the side armour of a Leopard
and evidence suggest this was probably right. The Leopard's 105 mm L7A3 was
a hard hitting weapon for sure, however the British again had the edge with
the 120mm L11, an excellent gun and made better with control stabilized by
servos and electronics. This provided excellent control on azimuth and
elevation, a feature which became a standard on later models. The metal in
the gun barrel was also an innovation, via ESR or electro slag control that
eliminated most impurities and enhanced the tensile strength of the steel.
(A marvel of British engineering)
According to many credible sources the Chieftain was the best MBT in service
in the world during the 1970's. As far as the "horrendous engine
failures"... well this was true enough early on, 90% were lost in one day in
Germany, but the remedy came in an improved L60 multi-fuel engine with
upgrades in the air filter system. Such failures were never seen again.
Unfortunately the L60 suffered a bad reputation as a result, something which
was not deserved as the later models proved very reliable.
As to power, well the weight ratio speaks for itself. Always about 20 hp per
tonne, not bad at all really.
Any comments, criticisms, objections? All appreciated! ( It's just for fun,
besides where else are you going to be able to talk tank? )
Jack
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 04 2000 - 21:57:28 PDT