An ex-Danish Leopard 1A5 tank belonging to a Ukrainian army brigade survived at least eight hits by Russian first-person-view drones before potentially three more explosive FPV drones finally finished it off.
The combat vehicle was spotted by Russian drone operators in one of the forest belts, after which attack helicopters were sent in its direction. The tank withstood three hits to the frontal part, as well as two more to the port side and stern, after which it moved away to leave the danger zone.
After driving onto the road, the tank stopped for unknown reasons, during which it received three more hits to the roof of the engine and transmission compartment. However, this did not lead to engine failure, as the Leopard 1A continued to move. Only two more hits to the same place stopped the tank and probably caused a fire.
The Ukrainian crew’s persistence in maintaining control of the tank during the barrage underscored their determination to protect their vehicle. While their current status remains unknown, analysts believe the crew likely survived due to the strikes targeting compartments distant from the crew’s position. To reduce the risk of 105-millimeter rounds cooking off in the turret after an enemy hit, Leopard 1A5 crews stow only a few of the tank’s 42 rounds in the turret: the rest are tucked into the hull.
It’s a cumbersome arrangement. To reload, the tank “must roll back to a safe location,” one loader explained to a Ukrainian journalist. “This takes time.” The upside is that there are fewer rounds to cook off—and kill or maim the crew—when enemy fire penetrates the turret. It’s not for no reason that the loader said he felt “great” about crewing a Leopard 1A5 despite the tank’s thin base armour.
All the add-on armour seems to have protected the Leopard 1A5 that ate up to 11 Russian drones recently. After repeated hits, the tank still managed to move out—only to get chased down by additional drones. Finally immobilized, the tank was probably a total write-off after the ninth, 10th or 11th hit.
It is also worth noting that the vehicle did not have effective electronic warfare equipment on board, which would have suppressed the radio control channel of the drones in advance. The poor saturation of tactical electronic warfare equipment, and even more so of high-quality systems, currently leads to significant losses in combat equipment on the front line.
While losing any Leopard 1A5 is painful for Ukrainian forces who waited more than a year to receive significant numbers of the 1980s-vintage tanks from a German-Danish-Dutch consortium, that one of the Leopards survived a Russian drone swarm means Ukrainian efforts to up-armour the tanks seem to be working.
The 40-ton, four-person Leopard 1A5 is a fast and maneuverable tank with accurate fire controls for its reliable 105-millimeter main gun. Its greatest weakness has always been its thin armor protection: a Leopard 1A5’s base armour is just 70 millimeters thick at its thickest. A newer Leopard 2A4 has four times as much protection.
As the first few Leopard 1A5s—out of at least 155 the consortium has pledged—began arriving in Ukraine in late 2023, the Ukrainians immediately got to work addressing the tanks’ biggest flaw.
“The problems of reinforcing the armour are already being solved by Ukrainian engineers,”
Ukrainian ICTV reported.
Over the next year, the engineers added layers of explosive reactive armour, which bursts outward when struck in order to deflect incoming rounds. They also bolted on hinged screens covered in netting that can trap FPV drones in the instant before they strike.
After writing off that drone-harried Leopard 1A5—the eighth tank of that model that analysts have confirmed as destroyed—the Ukrainians still have around 90 Leopard 1A5s. Another 50 or 60 are coming soon.
Expect all the newly arriving Leopard 1A5s to get the same add-on armor that resisted eight Russian drones.
Sources: Forbes; Defence Blog; Militarnyi ;