I have considered doing up a post in the suggestions section of the forum for the Leopard AS1. I would dearly love an Australian tech tree, which would obviously include New Zealand, but would not be a standalone tree. It’d either be a sub-tree for UK or part of a new tree with Canada or something. (Australia and Canada have history of sharing military tech as well if you didn’t know).
But one thing I can’t find a certain answer on is the ammunition available to the Leopard AS1. The suggestion on the old forum suggested it had APFSDS and I do not believe that is correct. It seems the ammo would be the same as the Leopard I, DM13 APDS, HEATFS and HESH. Has anyone else found an official source suggesting otherwise?
Edit: In fact I think the old forums suggestion for it had numerous other errors, suggesting it had better armour than the 1A3 it was based off which made it heavier resulting in the top speed that is a couple km/hr lower. To my understanding the armour is basically the same, the lower top speed is due to the engine running in a tropical configuration for our hotter climate.
It’s an L7 gun so in principle any ammunition type that works could be used. The types actually used by the Australia were L52A2 APDS, L35A3 HESH, M456A1 HEAT, M416 Smoke, M494 APERS, and TC800 Canister.
There are bound to be other sources if you want primary, for convenience I just grabbed it out of “Leopard AS1 - Leopard in Australian Service” ISBN 978-0-9928425-3-6, as Michael Cecil is generally reasonably reliable.
An ANZAC TT would be really good to see. Although there would be little reason to play Britain afterwards as it would have many of the pros with few of the shortcomings, but I could live with that.
I don’t know if there’s a suggestion somewhere for it.
I’d prefer a Commonwealth tree over an ANZAC one. There’d be a ton of gaps and copy-paste with pure ANZAC. New Zealand has stopped using tanks entirely since the M41 and Scorpion. So their highest vehicle would be the NZLAV.
Exactly. Canada has a lot to offer, it should be a Canadian tech tree with an ANZAC sub tree. Nothing else from the Commonwealth is needed, but you could of course add premiums and stuff from places like the Philippines etc. who have strong local ties with Australia but won’t ever get their own tech tree.
1A5 is a blanket term for all Leo 1s that received the EMES 18, though the only 1A5s with welded turrets were in Danish service.
Also, the picture shows a Leopard 1A3 with the same commander sight all other versions use, a 1A4 would have a PERI-R12. Afaik 1A4s werent even exported
Australian Leopard 1A4s never received EMES 18, and as you’ve said, the only "1A5"s were Leopard 1A4 modernized to 1A5DK standard. There’s a reason why it’s called 1A5DK, as it needs to distinguish itself from standard cast models.
Then again, what does this have to do with what I said?
You’re right on that, I got the sequence of variants mixed around and which had received which optic, though it still received the Leopard 1A4 FCS suite minus the commander sight.
This vehicle is understandable but I quite dislike the worrying trend of British mains trying to claim the vehicles of half the world. Like the ridiculous idea that the Alpha Jet MS1/2 should go to Britain instead of France or Germany. Trees should get 1 or 2 (and Britain already has one…) nations as subtrees, not some homunculus of the best vehicles of a dozen nations. Leave other vehicles for other nations and keep the vehicles of a nation together in one tree when possible.
Blockquote
In 1974, following an exhaustive series of competitive trials between the M60A1 and Leopard 1A1, the Australian government confirmed the purchase of the Leopard AS1 – in essence, a Leopard 1A3 with a unique suite of modifications to suit Australian requirements.
Blockquote
The Leopard AS1 (AS is the NATO abbreviation for Australia) utilises the Leopard 1 hull and the fabricated steel turret of the introduced with the Leopard 1A3 series. The vehicles were manufactured by Krauss Maffei and the MBTs carry the factory hull numbers 17001 to 17091. In Australian service, the MBTs carry the Army Registration Numbers (ARN) 27706 to 27781, and 29386 to 29399.
It might have accrued some 1A4 stuff and things, or it may have been local market modifications, but it’s based on a 1A3.
