A Leopard 2A4 tank reinforced with explosive reactive armor has been caught on cameras, photos and footage were shared by several communities in the open media. There have already been suggestions that Ukrainian engineers and repair technicians were working in that direction, as we reported earlier this March, but there had been no evidence of other extra armored German tanks spotted since then.
Now, however, we can witness at least one Leopard 2A4. Credits to @OSINTua and NMFTE for finding this vehicle. Defense Express won't be sharing the video due to concerns of undermining the security of Ukrainian soldiers by revealing their faces.
Read more: What is the Point of Adding Reactive Armor on Leopard 2A4: Who Made This Before and What the Conclusion Was
First detail that should be pointed out is the adequate approach taken by Ukrainian technicians given the available resources. The focus was on applying protection to the front and sides of the turret and the sides of the hull.
In order to do that, a framework was welded to the turret, and the ERA modules were attached to this frame. Worth noting, the standard containers of the Kontakt reactive armor kit could in fact have much more advanced and effective elements of the Nizh kit of Ukrainian making.
Besides the explosive modules, they also used rubber screens that partly cover the turret and the gun mantlet. Considering the lack of full-fledged NERA (non-energetic) elements, this was not a bad choice.
From a slightly different angle, we can as well see ERA modules placed over the sides of the hull. We cannot see the top to find out whether there is any additional protection; on the other hand, it is more efficient to use other kinds of protective superstructures, lighter ones, to ensure the tank isn't taken out by a suicide drone of a grenade dropped from above.
The upper and bottom pieces in the front part of the hull were left without being covered with ERA modules. This may indicate that this particular Leopard 2A4 and the one seen in a photo published earlier are two different vehicles.
And though it might seem that covering Leopard 2 tanks with explosive armor is an exclusively Ukrainian invention, it is actually not. In fact, many countries operating this main battle tank have developed similar improvements. For instance, Turkish Roketsan made its interpretation of an enhanced Leopard 2 combining both ERA and NERA elements.
Greece went even further and on top of a pragmatic kit of reactive armor added an active protection system to cover the upper hemisphere from enemy anti-tank weapons.
Surely, both projects have more aesthetically pleasing looks but at the same time neither Greek nor Turkish defense industries, let alone repair teams especially, don't have to work under zeitnot conditions and systematic missile attacks.
Read more: Tell Me What Are You: russians Made the Weirdest Tuning for a T-72 Possible (Photo)
