Friday, February 26, 2016

Panzers Forward

This is a flash of reality in Germany:

Faced with the resurgent threat of Russian armor, Germany has embarked on a program to develop a next-generation main battle tank that has sometimes been called the Leopard 3. The long overdue move comes after Berlin neglected the Bundeswehr for over two decades following the end of the Cold War and reunification of Germany.

The plan is to develop it with France. Other NATO states would likely buy some, I imagine. I wonder if the British will go their own way to replace the Challenger?

Now if only the Germans build more than 150 of them, they might have an army.

Given that the Germans are going up to 130mm for the main gun on their existing tanks as an interim measure, I wonder if we have plans to up-gun the Abrams, too?