Panther KF51
German Main Battle Tank / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the German tank in World War II, see Panther tank. For the modern South Korean Main Battle Tank, see K2 Black Panther.
The Panther KF51 (KF is short for German "Kettenfahrzeug" lit.ā'tracked vehicle') is a German main battle tank (MBT) that is under development by Rheinmetall Landsysteme (part of Rheinmetall's Vehicle Systems division). It was unveiled publicly at the Eurosatory defence exhibition on 13 June 2022.[2][3]
Quick Facts Type, Place of origin ...
Panther KF51 | |
---|---|
Type | Main battle tank |
Place of origin | Germany, Hungary |
Service history | |
In service | Not yet in service |
Production history | |
Designer | Rheinmetall (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann) |
Designed | Commenced 2016 |
Specifications (Hull) | |
Mass | Whole tank
|
Length | 7,8 m |
length | [Main cannon]
|
Width | 3.7 m |
Height | 2.5 m |
Crew | 3ā4
|
Armor | The KF51 Panther has a fully integrated, comprehensive, weight-optimized protection concept, incorporating active, reactive, and passive protection technologies. |
Main armament | Rh-130 L/52 130 mm smoothbore gun (up to 20 ready rounds)[1] |
Secondary armament | 12.7 mm coaxial machine gun (250 ready rounds), 7.62 mm NATTER RCWS (2,500 rounds) and optional HERO 120 loitering ammunitions[1] |
Engine | MTU MB 873 Ka-501 V-12 water-cooled diesel 1 500 hp |
Power/weight | 25 hp/t |
Transmission | Renk HSWL 354 |
Suspension | Torsion bar |
Fuel capacity | 1,100 L (242 imp gal; 291 US gal) |
Close
The KF51 is based on the hull of the Leopard 2A4,[4] but with a new turret mounting an autoloaded 130 mm calibre main gun.[4] On 5 December 2022, Rheinmetall announced its plans to target mostly existing Leopard 2 operators with the KF51.[5]