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OTO Melara Leopard 1

The first Leopard 1 tanks produced were completed by Krauss-Maffei of Munich in September 1965 and production continued until 1979. The Leopard 1 was also adopted by Italy (920, of which 720 built in Italy by OTO Melara). The Leopard 1 is armed with the L7 series rifled tank gun built by the British Royal Ordnance Factories Nottingham and can employ multiple ammunition.

After having made the first appointment service in 1974 on old M-47 of XIX Btg. Cor., in the 1987 recall to the 4th Btg Carri, it switched to Leopard 1s. At the time, the data available indicated that 830 specimens had entered service in the EI, 200 directly from Krauss Maffei, and the rest built under license by OTO-Melara. However, various sources indicate different totals, up to 920/930 specimens. It would be interesting to know exactly how many MBTs there were and how many ARV rescue tanks (70? 130?) and how many for pioneer engineers (40?).

• 200 Leopard 1A2 delivered directly from Germany, in the early 70s;
• 600 Leopard 1A2 built under license by OTO Melara, in the 70s
• 120 Leopard 1A2 built under license by OTO Melara following the 1975 extraordinary
• 69 Leopard recovery, ARV (Bergepanzer) supplied directly from Germany, since 1971
• 67 Leopard recovery, ARV (Bergepanzer) built under license by OTO Melara in the 1980s
• 12 Leopard pioneers (Pioneerpanzer) supplied directly from Germany, since 1971
• 28 Pioneer Leopards (Pioneerpanzer) built under license by OTO Melara since 1985
• 64 Leopard bridge guards, AVLB (Biber), all built under license by OTO Melara since 1985
• 120 Leopard 1A5 turrets were purchased by the German Army in 1995 and installed on overhauled Italian Leopard 1A2 hulls (with the following destinations: 54 tanks to the 131st Rgt, 54 tanks to the 133rd Rgt, then to the 31st Rgt, 8 wagons at the Lecce school and 4 wagons at the Tramat school in Rome).

The tank line of the Italian Army was in 1995 in a very deep crisis as it was equipped with obsolete means and no longer able to compete with the more modern tanks supplied to possible adversaries. In particular, the total elimination of the M60A1 tank and the serious delay in the acquisition of the new Ariete tank meant that the armored departments were entirely equipped with the old Leopard 1A2 which, conceptually almost thirty years old, had never been subjected to a real update program. In particular, the Italian tanks were devoid of any automated firing control system, were not equipped with passive night vision systems and had not been equipped with any additional protection to the weak original armor (the result of a compromise which wanted the Leopard to be a substantially able to base their survivability more on movement than on passive resistance).

To all this must be added the fact that many of these wagons were heavily worn out due to their intense use, not always accompanied by equally efficient maintenance. Furthermore, the Italian Army was now directed towards the inclusion of professional personnel who certainly would not have appreciated the fact of using such old tanks.

Discarding the idea of any radical intervention on the fleet of Italian tanks through the adoption of fire control systems of national conception, fell back on the purchase of 120 turrets of the A5 version enucleated from as many tanks placed out of service by the German Army. The Italian tanks were equipped with German turrets but not with the hulls which had some differences with the Italian ones and were also worn out by service. The Italian Army instead preferred to use hulls from its own line of wagons, subjecting them to a complete overhaul as well as some modifications to the rolling train to improve its efficiency. The intervention was extended to a certain number of hulls which maintained the A2 configuration of the turret, perhaps with the idea of submitting them at a later time to the transformation into A5 through the acquisition of further turrets which in reality never happened.

This provision, implemented with an emergency procedure since it was intended to use these tanks in the first missions abroad in which Italy participated, marked the final fate of the remaining Leopard 1A2s which were gradually withdrawn from service until their total disappearance from the tank line of the Italian Army which took place in April 2003.

The RALM (Laser Alarm Receiver) laser illumination warning system made by Marconi and also mounted on the Centauro armored car and on the Ariete tank was also fitted. This system has the purpose of identifying the emission of a laser over a 360° arc and with an angular resolution of 45° and determining the type of associated threat. Once the laser beam has been captured, the system can automatically activate the smoke launchers to form a screen in front of the wagon, it also sends an acoustic signal into the on-board intercom system and simultaneously displays the sector of origin of the light beam on a display. The system can discriminate lasers from rangefinders, illumination systems for air-to-ground missiles, bombs and laser-guided artillery shells.

Finally, the tanks used abroad were equipped with SINCGARS radios (SINgleChannel Ground and Airborne Radio System capable of sending COMmunications SECurity, COMSEC encrypted messages) and the relative supports for the antennas. In the Italian tanks, the adoption of additional armor in the turret (about 900 kg) and other modifications have increased the total weight by 2,000 kg, simultaneously imposing the reduction of the ammunition reserve by five rounds.

The Leopard 1 tank in the midst of the Cold War, went on to equip the armored departments of numerous NATO nations (Germany and Italy in primis) and, later, also of other foreign countries from Australia to South America.

The Leopard-1A5 , despite being an outdated combat tank, is still in service in various armies, such as the Brazilian, Chilean and Greek ones and could have a role in operational contexts characterized by a not particularly high level of threat. Equipped with additional armour, anti-mine armor and an engine upgraded to 950 hp, the Leopard-1A5 provides outstanding and exploitable performance in low-intensity operations or low-risk peacekeeping missions.

In 2021, news appeared of an ongoing study program to revitalize the line of special tanks on Leopard-1 mechanics . These are the recovery wagon, pioneer wagon and bridge wagon versions, produced under license in Italy by Oto Melara and entered service between the 1970s and 1980s. EMS Logistics Department IV plans to upgrade 100 platforms (50 rescue, 25 pioneer and 25 bridge carriers) under a program that is expected to be underway. The plans include not only the general overhaul but also the modernization of the vehicles with the replacement of parts and the upgrading of the propulsion and protection systems. This in order to support the Aries line of tanksin the field of mobility - overcoming anti-tank breaks, channels and ditches; opening corridors in minefields; recovery of injured or immobilized loved ones; removal of road obstacles; excavation of emplacements. These needs could also be exploited by the Centauro-2 heavy armored vehicles line , as is already the case today with the Leopard-1 rescue version for the Centauro-1.

After this premise, the question arises almost spontaneously: why not overhaul even a few dozen Leopard-1A5s by putting them back in operational condition? The costs of such an operation could be evaluated in relation to the benefits that could derive from the training of the tank departments, which today, due to the small number of efficient Ariete tanks , find it difficult to carry out their instructions in the tactical field and in cooperation with the Bersaglieri departments and self-propelled artillery.

The proposal was to assign 20-30 overhauled Leopard-1A5s to the 1st armored regiment of Capo Teulada, in order both to revitalize the department, currently without armored vehicles, and to improve the training of tank crews mounted on Ariete. In this way Italy could return to the old function of the CAUC of Capo Teulada which served as a training body for the departments that alternated in the range, and which found on the spot the armored vehicles to be used in fire exercises, avoiding their transport from the headquarters sedentary. Crews trained to use Rams would certainly not find it difficult to retrain in a short time to Leopard-1 crews, also in consideration of their less sophistication.

Leopard 1 to Ukraine

RUAG bought the used and non-operational Leopard 1A5 tanks from an agency of the Italian Ministry of Defense in 2016, Amherd said. With the purchase at the time, Ruag intended to prepare the vehicles for potential buyers and/or to sell spare parts to potential buyers. The tanks are still in Italy.

German armaments company Rheinmetall wants to buy 96 Leopard 1 tanks from Swiss defence firm Ruag to send to Ukraine, the Swiss newspaper Tages- Anzeiger reported on 12 March 2023. The deal involves used and non-operational Leopard 1 tanks, which Ruag bought in 2016 in Italy and which are still there. "Rheinmetall wanted to buy the vehicles and made it clear that they would be delivered to Ukraine after being reconditioned," a spokesperson for Ruag told Tages-Anzeiger.

Ruag requested a non-binding preliminary clarification from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, and received a negative answer, according to Tages-Anzeiger. The deal could however still go through and is likely to be discussed by Switzerland's Federal Council. When exactly, is unclear. According to Swiss law, only decommissioned war materiel can be sold.

The Swiss armaments company Ruag is currently not allowed to sell its Leopard 1 tanks to Germany. The authorities had rejected Ruag's application as part of a preliminary investigation, said Federal Councilor Viola Amherd during question time in the National Council 13 March 2023. The German armaments group Rheinmetall made it clear that it would like to pass on the tanks to Ukraine after repairs, Amherd explained. She thus confirmed a report by the Tamedia newspapers from the beginning of March. Based on the ordinance on measures in connection with the situation in Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) had rejected the preliminary request from RUAG Switzerland, Amherd said.

During question time, the two national councilors Franziska Roth (SP/SO) and David Zuberbühler (SVP/AR) wanted to know, among other things, why RUAG bought the tanks and what plans they have with them. Based on the media report, both assumed that there were 96 tanks.

While waiting for the Ukrainian troops to complete the necessary training to use the Leopard 2, Germany approved the export to Kyiv of 29 Leopard 1, the German tanks produced in the 1960s, replaced by the new model only twenty years ago, in 2003. During the Cold War, Leopard 1s were the primary armored fighting vehicles of Germany and much of Western Europe's militaries. The Leopard 1s were designed and produced by the Porsche automobile company , precisely to counter the masses of Soviet tanks supplied to the Warsaw Pact countries.