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From: nzt1939@dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil (William M. Aldo)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Leopard_III
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.045911.4944@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 27 Nov 90 04:59:11 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: nzt1939@dsacg3.dsac.dla.mil (William M. Aldo)
John Masly writes:

>	Acutally, CNN has the tank designators correct.  There
>are only three variants of the M1 Abrams Tank: IPM1 (Initial
>Production M1), M1, and M1A1.  There is no such model as the
>M1A2.........
>
>105mm main gun was removed and replaced by the 120mm smoothbore
>main gun (this gun is a German design, check out the German Main
>Battle Tank, the Leopard III)......
		  ^^^^^^^^^^^
Overall, a good article....pretty much to the point; however, the 
Leopard III doesn't exist, yet (unless they're currently working on
it). The Leopard II utilizes a 120-mm smoothbore gun manufactured
in Germany by Rheinmettal (the same maingun used in the M1A1, which
BTW the U.S. didn't want in their 'new' tanks, back when the MBT70
was on the drawing board....kind of ironic, eh ;-) Also, the Leopard
II's main body/chassis is not that much different from the Leopard I.

***As a former tank commander of the 1st Armor Division, I spent two
   weeks training with our 'sister-unit' in the West (formerly;-)
   German Army (303rd Panzer Regiment; Hahnenkamm Kaserne; Heidenheim,
   Germany) back in Jan/Feb '74. At that time, they had just recieved
   the 'new' Leopard Ia3.     (trivia, if nothing else)

--

Mark Aldo   UUCP: (osu-cis)!dsacg1!waldo   INTERNET: waldo@dsac.dla.mil
"...Hotel Quebec One Six...You are clear to begin your night run on
Range Eight Zero....Good luck, good shooting...Tower, out" -- radio
transmission from Control Tower - Range 80 at Grafenwoehr, Germany