I think that the 123A will most likely have the ATTICA thermals.
“night optics” was one of the listed upgrades, the ATTICA had been ordered by the German army since 2013 (don’t know the year of implementation) and the statements by FMV (Swedish defence material company) and the Swedish defence force is to “bring the MBT up to standard and in line with the other country’s leopards” or something of that verbiage.
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The irony is that this would include armor.
Because todays leopards sre better armored then the strv122, just that gsjin believes the opposite
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That image shows up until 2A6 and then a bump in 2000 but no mention of what tanks have that increased protection.
I’ve seen other sources on the 2A7 and 2A7V having increased armor but nothing really solid. (it can be assumed it’s higher and it logically would be, but no solid proof so far)
~2001 - > Leopard 2A6EX Demo I (called 2A6M on the slide, 2E & 2HEL are production variants of it)
~1997 - > Strv 122A
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As far as i know and understand it the 2A6EX was brought up to the same protection as the strv 122 as the 122 was the most protected Leopard in existence at its introduction.
2A6EX was a continuation of the development that had lead to the Strv 122, i.e Leopard 2 TVM max
Post-2000 is also when the improved D-technology under the alias D-V started making appearances (it’s an internal armor, and no, I don’t have a written source for this, before you ask [if you know what I mean]).
In addition, IBDs 5th generation add-on technology was also being developed around that time.
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The 2A6EX has the full MEXAS armor, the same armor that the 122 has. it was developed in 92-93 by IBD in collaboration with the Swedish “Åkers krutbruk protection AB”.
That image is interesting, so improvements were made in -98 and -00. But which version was fitted to which tank is then the question.
Calling it a collaboration is stretching the definition of “helping with identifying the weakpoints in the design” a bit, lol. MEXAS-H is an armor that is related to D-technology (Frank Lobitz and a few other German authors state this; “The add-on armour packages were designed with D-technology (similar to fourth-generation spaced composite armour)”, and it was in development for way longer than just “92 - 93”.
First examples can be observed on the 1989 KVT
Spoiler
Then in 1990 on the IVT Leopard 2
Spoiler
Finally in mid-1991 on the TVMs,
By 1993 they had finalized the design with the TVM 2 mod).
Spoiler
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well, Åkers krutbruk was a subsidiary and owned by IBD so i doubt that it was that shallow.
The specific armor on the strv122 was developed during those years (as stated in the image by the same guy that later leaked the actual numbers that Gaijin now uses for armor values), I didn’t mean mexas armor as a whole, just that specific iteration.
Edit:
Åkers got bought by IBD in 2002.
(Åkers krutbruk får tyska ägare - P4 Sörmland | Sveriges Radio)
Edit 2:
They even made comparisons between the german made armor and the Swedish made armor for the 122 (i assue IBD vs åkers?)
Spoiler
(same document lists åkers as the ones making the protection)
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On the old Akers website (from 1997, literally) they also mention that MEXAS (H variant included) is a development by IBD (funnily they don’t even mention themselves, seeing as they were pretty much just a re-distributor producing MEXAS under a license);
Tho, this advert from IBD alone should be enough to clear any and all confusions; IBD states that they’re the sole developer of MEXAS, and that this armor is under use by the Strv 122 (therefore it’s safe to assume that it doesn’t USE some sort of exotic variant):
Spoiler
They even made comparisons between the german made armor and the Swedish made armor for the 122 (i assue IBD vs åkers?)
Leopard 2 IVT versus TVM (doctrinal differences pretty much, Germany originally had opted for a less capable but larger force consisting of Leopard 2s built to IVT standard armor wise, Sweden on the other hand opted for a more capable fleet based on TVMs armor standard but far smaller [699 MBTs versus ~120).
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it states “produced […]based on […]” in that image. Meaning that they further produce and develop it (as also shown by the differing protection in the tests between the german mexas and the Swedish improved mexas).
also, i don’t see any statement on “sole developer” in that image?
It is just the armor solution being tested in those images. one made by Germany and one made by åkers by further developing the german armor received.
Edit:
some additions and clarifications
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“Based on MEXAS…”, which the MEXAS-H is a part of, and therefore based on it (my guy it’s a family of armors).
german mexas and the Swedish improved mexas
There is no “German MEXAS” and “Swedish improved MEXAS”, there’s just MEXAS and its sub-variants (M, L, H, etc).
It is just the armor solution being tested in those images. one made by Germany and one made by åkers by further developing the german armor received.
Okay, why is German solution’s protection identical to a B-technology equipped prototype, then? Leopard 2 TVM, as provided to the Swedes, has never used any other armor configuration than C-technology & MEXAS-H, after all. But yes, there was a difference in their add-ons (just look at the images of the IVT and TVMs that I have posted here…), but the dissimilarity can largely be attributed to the different internal packages of the vehicles tested, nothing to do with “IBD vs Akers”.
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Give us lots of leopards 2 wherever you go! Gaijin!
that’s a massive stretch…
Also: the H just means heavy. mexas is the term for the armor, three variants, light, medium and heavy. they aren’t really “further developments of the same armor” just different packages they designed for different purposes. They aren’t necessarily of different armor quality/protection per weight.
Then what was tested during the trials?
i’m just speculating here but is it possible that the B-level was what the germans had at the time (1993) and that the Swedish improvement was what was later introduced as C-level in Germany after the IBD acquisition of åkers? The choice in the end by Sweden was to go with the Swedish armor for the Leopard making it more protected than the version Germany had at the time.
But the trials at least specifies that there were two solutions tested, one developed by Germany and one developed by Sweden.
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C-Tech had already been in service on 6th batch 2A4s since the mid 80s.
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Thanks for the info, i additionally found this in the tests:
Spoiler
So the improved uses B tech and was tested with both Swedish and versions of D-2 addons.
How? It’s a simple logical connection, I’d say it’s more of a stretch to claim MEXAS-H, in its current from, has been developed by Akers, when even they themselves don’t make such a claim on their own website.
Then what was tested during the trials?
Leopard 2 IVT vs Leopard 2 TVM, simple as that.
On a different note: isn’t it funny how Linstorm is pretty much the only author to claim that Akers developed a different add-on solution to IBDs, just for IBD to turn around and state it outright that 122s use MEXAS and that it’s been development solely by them?
i’m just speculating here but is it possible that the B-level was what the germans had at the time (1993) and that the Swedish improvement was what was later introduced as C-level in Germany after the IBD acquisition of åkers? The choice in the end by Sweden was to go with the Swedish armor for the Leopard making it more protected than the version Germany had at the time.
8th batch models had C-technology from the get-go…
But the trials at least specifies that there were two solutions tested, one developed by Germany and one developed by Sweden.
They specify that “two solutions were tested”, not that two different solutions were developed.
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@Jεcka the new leopard book we got mentioned that the strv122 armor becsme the new standard for all the future export leopards 2a6hel /e didnt it?
MEXAS was already standard by then (Leopard 2A5 which featured it first on the turret). It’s more accurate to say that the way Strv 122 had been using the full MEXAS package became the standard for all future constructions.
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Notably, if you would like to read, that’s what I said