RE: [OT]Wither Canada? And Australias Abrahms

A long, long time ago Jared Hilal wrote:

[...that Leo2A5 has an L55 gun, and then cites his references:]

>Best description:
>Encylopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles, Ed. Chris Foss,
>2002, p248

Chris Foss really should've known better than that. (Then again, it 
wouldn't've been the first time Jane's got things backwards - it took
them 
well over a year to figure out that the Carl Gustaf system is *not*
owned 
by United Defence, for example :-/ )

>[about the Leo 2A5] "The most important of these [improvements] is a
>lengthened 120mm gun extended from the previous 44 calibres to 55
>calibres"

This is just plain wrong. The A4 and A5 have the same gun (L44); the
most 
visible difference between them is the turret front armour - the Leo2A4
has 
a vertical (or nearly vertical) turret front, whereas the A5 and later 
versions have a wedge of add-on armour on the turret front. The Leo2A*6*

uses the L55 gun.

>"Sweden will licence manufacture the Leopard 2A5, while Spain will
>produce the Leopard2A6, a private-venture export model similar to the
>Leopard 2A5, but with extras such as air conditioning, an auxilliary
>power unit and yet more protection."

All Swedish Leopards - both the Strv121 (Leo2A4) and Strv122 (Leo2S, ie.

A5s with upgraded armour, GALIX launchers and different electronics) -
have 
the 44-calibre gun.

> >>I still don't understand that.  I understand the objection to DU
> >>ammunition (don't agree, but understand) but I don't understand the
> >>objection to the HA package.  <Shrug>
> >
> >For the same reasons given with the munitions Aussies just don't go
> >for DU.
>
>"Firing our DU penetrators at the enemy contaminates the envionment",
>how can that be applied to the armor?	"Firing our DU armor panels at
>the enemy contaminates the envionment"?

Duh. The correct answer is "If the enemy fires at our DU panels and
manage 
to penetrate all the way to the actual DU bits, DU dust thrown out from 
panels contaminates the environment."

>It's not clear whether the M1A2 has the same armor as the M1A1 or the
>HA package as standard.

IIRC neither. AFAIK the M1A2 has even stronger armour than the M1A1HA - 
though I may have confused the "vanilla" M1A2 with the M1A2SEP here.

Regards,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry