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Lexicon · Europe

Leopard 2

Germany's Leopard 2 — the most widely fielded Western main battle tank, a 120 mm four-crew design exported to more than 20 armies and donated to Ukraine, where its 2A4 and 2A6 variants have fought since 2023.

Leopard 2
FIG.01 · Europe Image - A Leopard 2 main battle tank. Photo by Reise Reise, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Germany's Leopard 2 — the most widely fielded Western main battle tank, a 120 mm four-crew design exported to more than 20 armies and donated to Ukraine, where its 2A4 and 2A6 variants have fought since 2023.

Overview

The Leopard 2 is the standard main battle tank of Germany and, through four decades of export, the de facto common heavy tank of European NATO. Built by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann — now part of KNDS Deutschland — around a Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun and an MTU diesel, it is fielded by more than twenty armies in variants spanning the 1980s-vintage 2A4 to the current 2A7V and the newly delivered 2A8. Its blend of firepower, protection and mobility, plus a deep installed base and shared logistics, made it the natural backbone of the Western coalition's tank donations to Ukraine.

🔒 The full Leopard 2 file is for BattlePolicy Pro members. Below the line: development history, design and capabilities, variants, the combat record, advantages and limitations, comparable systems, outlook, the full specifications table, our sourcing, and the analyst assessment — procurement, suppliers and the BattlePolicy verdict. Unlock the full file with BattlePolicy Pro →

Below this point

  • Development
  • What comes next
  • Design & capabilities
  • Variants
  • Combat record / operational use
  • Advantages
  • Drawbacks / limitations
  • Counterparts
  • Outlook
  • Key specifications
  • Sources
  • Analyst Section
  • Procurement & contracts
  • Suppliers & related companies
  • Comparable systems — analyst view
  • Analyst note
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