FPV strikes on a Leopard 1A5.
Russian defense ministry capture
An ex-Danish Leopard 1A5 tank belonging to a Ukrainian army brigade survived at least eight hits by Russian first-person-view drones before potentially three more explosive FPV drones finally finished it off.
Russian forces proudly posted a video montage of the lengthy bombardment, but it’s not entirely good news for the Russians—nor bad news for the Ukrainians.
While losing any Leopard 1A5 is painful for Ukrainian forces who waited more than a year to receive significant numbers of the 1980s-vintage tanks from a German-Danish-Dutch consortium, that one of the Leopards survived a Russian drone swarm means Ukrainian efforts to up-armor the tanks seem to be working.
The 40-ton, four-person Leopard 1A5 is a fast and maneuverable tank with accurate fire controls for its reliable 105-millimeter main gun. Its greatest weakness has always been its thin armor protection: a Leopard 1A5’s base armor is just 70 millimeters thick at its thickest. A newer Leopard 2A4 has four times as much protection.
As the first few Leopard 1A5s—out of at least 155 the consortium has pledged—began arriving in Ukraine in late 2023, the Ukrainians immediately got to work addressing the tanks’ biggest flaw. “The problems of reinforcing the armor are already being solved by Ukrainian engineers,” Ukrainian ICTV reported.
Over the next year, the engineers added layers of explosive reactive armor, which bursts outward when struck in order to deflect incoming rounds. They also bolted on hinged screens covered in netting that can trap FPV drones in the instant before they strike.
All the add-on armor seems to have protected the Leopard 1A5 that ate up to 11 Russian drones recently. After repeated hits, the tank still managed to move out—only to get chased down by additional drones. Finally immobilized, the tank was probably a total write-off after the ninth, 10th or 11th hit.
It’s unclear whether the four crew survived, but there are reasons to be optimistic. To reduce the risk of 105-millimeter rounds cooking off in the turret after an enemy hit, Leopard 1A5 crews stow only a few of the tank’s 42 rounds in the turret: the rest are tucked into the hull.
It’s a cumbersome arrangement. To reload, the tank “must roll back to a safe location,” one loader explained to a Ukrainian journalist. “This takes time.” The upside is that there are fewer rounds to cook off—and kill or maim the crew—when enemy fire penetrates the turret. It’s not for no reason that the loader said he felt “great” about crewing a Leopard 1A5 despite the tank’s thin base armor.
After writing off that drone-harried Leopard 1A5—the eighth tank of that model that analysts have confirmed as destroyed—the Ukrainians still have around 90 Leopard 1A5s. Another 50 or 60 are coming soon.
Expect all the newly arriving Leopard 1A5s to get the same add-on armor that resisted eight Russian drones.
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