- Yes
- No
General Info
The story of the Leopard Thetis began when the armies of France, Germany and Italy had began to collaborate on a new European main battle tank, mainly due to the now outdated American made M47’s not being as useful as they were at one point. In short France and Germany would eventually go separate ways when making the new MBT, France ended up making the AMX-30 whilst Germany made the Leopard. Italy had chosen to stick with Germany and overall preferred that design over the AMX-30, so what would happen is Italy ended up buying and later on license producing the Leopard tank. They’d be purchased in 2 lots from Krauss Maffei (92 tanks in 1971 and 108 tanks in 1972); all subjected progressively to slight modifications, such as the installation of anti-distortion sleeves on the bdf and Diehl D 640 A tracks instead of the original Diehl D 139 E2 tracks. One of the main reasons Italy decided to go for the Leopard 1 was due to it having great mobility that would’ve helped it whilst traversing Italian terrain, and fitted quite neatly with the Italian doctrine. Another reason the Leopard was chosen was due to the ability it had in shooting majority of NATO standard ammunition. Leopard 1’s would be able to fire HESH, APDS and HEAT thanks its its 105/51 Rifled cannon. In terms of mobility the Leopard 1 would be able to go 65km an hour, and was able to effectively climb inclines and pass through (low levels) of water better than most tanks of the time. At the time the leopard was considered to be decently protected, but that soon would not be the case as other countries would begin to develop more potent tanks and rounds. Once all deliveries of the Leopard 1 tank were completed, Italy’s OTO Melara had decided to experiment with the ‘’ Officine Galileo Thetis ‘’, a thermal infra-red sight system made in Italy. This special optic, would allow tanks to utilize both night and thermal vision, to increase visibility for the crew, and allow them to pick of targets both day and night. This optic was tested on a updated version of the OF-40 that also mounted some extra armour around the tank. Maybe to further gain attention from the Italian army who were major users of the Leopard tank, they had then later on mounted the Thetis unto a Leopard 1. However the project was put to a halt due to a new more modern upgrade for the OF-40, the OF-40 MK2, which took priority, and also the fact that Italy was about to buy new Leopard 1A2’s. Due to these upgrades, the Thetis would never actually be adopted on either tanks, however sources state that the sighting system was exported to many countries, such as Pakistan.
Armaments+equipment
x1 105/51 Rifled cannon (able to fire heat, apds and hesh)
x1 Thetis Thermal Tank Infra-red system
x2 7.62mm MG 42/59 machine guns
x8 smoke discharges (4 on left and 4 on right side of turret)
Specifications
Spoiler
Why it should be in game
Well everyone seems to complain about copy paste vehicles nowadays, and even though there might be some genuine points as to why certain vehicles shouldn’t appear again on a different tree, for Italy, it shouldn’t apply at least in this case. Italy used extensively the Leopards, and kept them into service for a long time, while people have been discussing weather Italy should get a leopard, this should at least make everyone happy as its a unique variant of the leopard, since it has access to the Thetis Thermal sights. It could incredibly bolster Italian lineups in Mid-tiers. And then there would be more options for a more realistic Italian army since most of its tree is made of vehicles that were never put into service. At least with the leopard we can get even more representation of the Italian armed forces, while also filling up the tree with something relatively easy to implement due to the majority of this vehicle already being in game.
Sources
Spoiler
Storia militare Italian Leopard 1
Janes Armour and Artillery
Autoveicoli del l’esercito italiano
http://www.senato.it/service/PDF/PDFServer/BGT/1067230.pdf
THETIS - THETIS Community
Leopard 1 - Wikipedia
Leopard 1 - Wikipedia
https://www.leonardocompany.com/documents/20142/3150419/THETIS_LQ_mm07860_.pdf?t=1538987612626
https://www.leonardocompany.com/documents/20142/3150014/Erica_FF_Full_Format_Thermal_Imager_LQ_mm08118_.pdf?t=1538987554504
Al Khalid, Type 85III upgrade program | Sino Defence Forum - China Military Forum
http://www.modp.gov.pk/modp/userfiles1/file/MoDP Data/NEW YEAR BOOK 2008.pdf
Leopard I MBT (1965)
https://www.leonardocompany.com/documents/20142/3150713/TILDE_LQ_mm07866_.pdf?t=1538987659754
Leopard 1 Main Battle Tank
http://www.military-today.com/tanks/leopard.htm
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/644221748631437312/708341589709422722/THETIS_LQ_mm07860_.pdf )
Photos
