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Canadian Forces Armour
— Leopard 2A4M CAN Main Battle Tank |
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Update: Feb 2012 –
The first refurbished Leopard 2A4M CANs began arriving in Halifax in late January. After final checks at
Rheinmetall Canada in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu near Montreal, these 2A4Ms were shipped by
rail to Edmonton, arriving in the first week of February.
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Leopard 2A4M – Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed ...
The Canadian Forces first Leopard 2 tanks were twenty Leopard 2A6Ms. Those tanks, on loan from Germany since 2007, have now been
joined in Afghanistan by five refurbished and upgraded CF Leopard 2A4M CANs. This variant has been
created by the Leo's German makers, Krauss Maffei Wegmann to update ex-Dutch 2A4s.
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The new variant was first unveiled by KMW in October 2010. The ex-Dutch Leopard 2A4 hulls were refurbished,
running gears upgraded, and 'composite' armour protection similar to that of the loaned Leopard 2A6M CAN
installed. The turrets also received composite armour. Again, this is similar to Leopard 2A6M protection but
different in detail – IED blast protection being paramount. Leopard 2A4M CANs are also
distinct in retaining the shorter original L/44 120mm gun.[1]
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KMW Leopard 2A4M
CAN Specifications
| Crew: |
4 (driver, gunner, loader,
veh cdr.) |
Armament:
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120mm L/44 main gun, 2 x 7.62mm
C6s, 16 x 70mm grenade launchers |
Size:
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L x 9.90m (gun fwd.) 7.74m (hull),
W x 3.74m
(less skirts), H x 3.0m |
| Weight: |
61 t (incl add-on & bar armour) [2] |
| Powerplant: |
1100 kW MTU MB 873 |
| Speed: |
70+ km/h (road), 55 km/h (off road) |
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Out of Service Trials & into an Operational Fire
Some surprise was expressed at the new Leopard 2A4M CANs being deployed so close to the end of the CF
combat mission in Afghanistan. There's two compelling reasons: the five Leopard 2A4Ms brought Leopard 2
numbers back to 20 (assuming the 15 remaining 2A6Ms held out ) and DND had the opportunity to give the
new Leopard 2A4M a real 'baptism of fire' under operational conditions. With the end of the CF's
combat mission, Leopard 2A4Ms are being sent home to Canada.
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[1] Leopard 2A6s mated the longer L/55 gun to the ballistically-improved add-on armour of the Leopard
2A5. Both gun and armour were optimized for tank-vs-tank engagements. See Leopard 2A4M Background for details of distinctions
between Leopard 2A6M and 2A4Ms.
[2] No weight has been released for the Leopard 2A4M. This figure is an estimate based on the combat weight
of the base Leopard 2A4 – 55 tonnes – compared with the higher weight (62-64 t) of the more
heavily armoured of the related Swedish Strv 122 and Leopard 2A6Ms.
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