The
Leopard 2 is a
main battle tank developed by
Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s for the
West German Army. The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier
Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the
German Army. Various versions have served in the armed forces of Germany and 12 other European countries, as well as several non-European nations. The Leopard 2 was used in Kosovo with the German Army and has also seen action in Afghanistan with the Danish and Canadian contributions to the
International Security Assistance Force, as well as seeing action in
Syria with the Turkish Armed Forces against IS and the YPJ.
There are two main development batches of the tank, the original models up to
Leopard 2A4, which have vertically faced
turret armour, and the "improved" batch, namely the
Leopard 2A5 and newer versions, which have angled arrow-shaped turret
appliqué armour together with other improvements. All models feature digital
fire control systems with
laser rangefinders, a fully stabilized main gun and coaxial
machine gun, and advanced night vision and sighting equipment (first vehicles used a
low-light level TV system or LLLTV;
thermal imaging was introduced later on). The tank has the ability to engage moving targets while moving over