New kid on the block, or is it. The Rheinmetall Panther tank

[Mattias]

Rheinmetall has launched a new MBT, eh, concept/family. The level of modularity, claimed, makes hard to classify by conventional terms. Food for discussion though… Not least about the name. Oh and hey, we might finally get “environmentally friendly peacetime operations”.

 

https://militaryleak.com/2022/06/13/rheinmetall-debuts-kf51-panther-main-battle-tank-at-eurosatory-2022/

 

/Mattias

Edited June 13, 2022 by Mattias
Clarifying

[Vacillator]

Have another like my friend, who doesn't like a Panther?

[Artkin]

It's much lighter than other MBT's but it has the 130mm gun. What's the catch? Or have computer simulations found a better armor configuration and we are seeing it implemented.

[Aragorn2002]

Hope to see it one day in CM! Together with the Puma APC.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Aragorn2002

[Halmbarte]

On 6/23/2022 at 4:51 PM, Artkin said:

It's much lighter than other MBT's but it has the 130mm gun. What's the catch? Or have computer simulations found a better armor configuration and we are seeing it implemented.

I suspect it's the autoloader. Losing a crewman can give you a big reduction in the volume you need to protect, making the armor package lighter, which means you can use a smaller engine, that needs less armor to protect it...

 

For example the T64 weighed one more ton than the T62 but had much heavier armor package and a much bigger gun. All that was made possible by the autoloader. 

H

[chuckdyke]

17 minutes ago, Halmbarte said:

Losing a crewman can give you a big reduction in the volume you need to protect,

Not really there is space for a fourth. An additional space is available in the chassis as a command post or for a drone operator or wingman pilot. 

Rheinmetall unveils new tank design: KF51 Panther - Breaking Defense

[chuckdyke]

We don't have only flying drones. I probably wrong translated this as an AFV Drone.