Canadian Leopard MBT's going extinct???

[Rame]

Seeing as Canada is trying to find ways to upgrade their ground forces with budgets in mind, a couple of proposals

have come out in response to the proposed extinction of all Leopard C1 & C2 MBT's in the Army's inventory. The possible need for heavy units in combat situations involving urban areas was the main factor for these proposals. The unit would be called the Leopard CAT (combat assault tank).

One CAT proposal, which would cost some extra dollars, is keeping 12 to 14 Leopard C2's and re-equip them with dozer blade, a 120mm mortar in place of the 105mm gun, a coaxial 40mm grenade launcher mounted beside the mortar, 2 PWS .50 cal HMG's mounted on the turret plus the addition of slat and ball & chain armour all around the tank for additional protection against hollow charge weapons. The changes to the turret would be the main expense.

The other more cheaper CAT proposal would still involve keeping 12 to 14 Leopard C2's. Re-equip them with a dozer blade, the short 105mm L7 gun instead of the regular 105mm gun, keep the 7.62mm coaxial MG, add 2 PWS - 1 40mm grenade launcher

& 1 .50cal HMG mounted on the turret plus the addition of slat and ball & chain armour all around the tank for additional protection against hollow charge weapons.

[Redwolf]

I would be concerned about where all the ammo is supposed to go, in particular for the first version.

If this was an artillery system or based on an APC, you would have a reloading door in the rear where a resupply vehicle could "dock" and deliver ammo under cover. But there's no way to do that with a tank with a rear engine.

The Israelis showed a Markava 4 with a coaxial 40mm AGL recently, BTW, there's a thread on tanknet. I think the elevation is independent of the main gun but it looked bound to the main gun horizontally.

I could never understand why people don't give the loader's hatch an AGL with a ring mount. That would come in very handy in urban fighting.