Leopard 1 is a modern German main battle tank of the second generation. The first prototypes of the machine were created in 1961, and serial production continued in 1965-1979, ending with the release of more than 4,700 tanks. Leopard 1 is equipped with an MTU MB 838 Ca-M engine with a capacity of 830 hp. The vehicle is armed with one L7 A3 105mm semi-automatic cannon and two 7.62mm MG3 machine guns. The Leopard 1 was created in response to a demand for a new main battle tank announced by the Bundeswehr in 1956. The new machine was supposed to replace the American tanks M47 and M48. Design work and design tests continued until 1965, which can be partly explained by an unsuccessful attempt to establish cooperation with French companies on the new machine. But in the end, a highly advanced tank was created, with good weapons for those times, good armor, low failure rate and, as it turned out, very susceptible to modernization. In the course of serial production and operation, several experimental versions of the Leopard 1 tank were created. The first was version A 1 with a new gun stabilization system. An A 3 version was also created with a completely new turret design and better armor. In 1974, production of the A4 version began, with a new SKO (fire control system) and even more advanced turret armor. The last mass production version was the A 6 with an improved SKO over the A 5 version and better hydraulics. There were also upgrades made by foreign users, such as the Leopard C2, i.e. a 2000 upgrade of the Canadian-made Leopard 1 tank, which consists of strengthening the armor and using the turret from the A 5 version. Due to its high combat value, the Leopard 1 was exported to many countries, including : Brazil, Belgium, Chile, Greece, the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy. It is still in use in some of them (Italy or Greece).
