According to German business daily reports, the German concern Rheinmetall officially presented the new KF51 Panther tank at the Eurosatory-2022 exhibition in Le Bourget. Andelsblatt.
“At the Eurosatory 22 arms show in Paris, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger presented the KF51 Panther tank, which is considered the legitimate successor to the Leopard 2 tank. Experts have long considered it the most powerful main battle tank in the world, but the Leopard 2 is slowly getting old.” writes the newspaper.
According to Defense Romania, the Kf-51 Panther is the latest member of the Rheinmetall family of armored combat vehicles. The main armament of the Kf-51 is a 130 mm smoothbore barrel. The concern did not publish detailed information about the characteristics and characteristics of the new tank. It was also not specified whether it was an independent project of the company, or whether it was developed as part of the joint program of Germany and France MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) to create a new main battle tank. The MGCS program aims to replace the Leopard 2 and Leclerc tanks from 2035.
The Leopard 2 has been in development since 1970, the first production tank was delivered to the German army in 1979. At the beginning of 2015, more than 3,200 tanks of this type were produced, in 2017 2,516 Leopard 2 units of various modifications were used. These tanks are in service with the armies of a number of NATO countries.
It was previously reported that Germany. refuses Fearing the “look” of these combat vehicles in Russia, transfer their tanks to Ukraine. According to sources in the German government, Berlin believes that the Ukrainian authorities could use German equipment to invade Russian territory, which will remind of the actions of Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War.