The Belgian defense company John Cockerill has developed its own version of the Leopard 1A5 tank upgrade, which was first presented nearly three years ago at the Eurosatory 2022 exhibition.
At first glance, it may even seem surprising that this Leopard upgrade variant remains relatively unknown, considering its technological features. The Belgians have equipped this tank with the Cockerill 3105 turret featuring a 105-mm gun, with an autoloader capable of holding 12-16 rounds.
Although the Cockerill 3105 turret is designed to be made of aluminum, its use would reduce the crew size of the Leopard 1A5, thus making the tank more adaptable for modern combat conditions.
Additionally, the upgraded Leopard 1A5 would benefit from improved crew situational awareness, greater elevation angles for the gun, and enhanced firepower due to the installation of a state-of-the-art fire control system, compared to the base model.
However, right at the beginning of this project, there were actually two caveats. The first was that John Cockerill acknowledged the need to increase the height of the tank's hull to accommodate the Cockerill 3105 turret, although they did not specify the time and costs required for such modifications. The second caveat was that, apparently, the Belgians did not foresee enhancing the tank's protection using other available means.
Now, as reported by the Polish portal Defence24, new nuances have emerged in the Belgian project to upgrade the Leopard 1A5 with the Cockerill 3105 turret.
To begin with, as directly indicated in this publication, there is currently no way to reliably determine the progress of the mentioned project. The only thing to consider is the existence of a post on the social media platform LinkedIn by Bear Midkiff, managing director of Midkiff Consultancy Services, who claimed that by the end of 2024, the "Leopard" with Cockerill 3105 was expected to undergo fire testing. Other data sources on this topic are notably absent.
The next aspect is that although the outlined Leopard 1A5 upgrade project appears appealing, there are currently no publicly known buyers for it. While it might seem that countries like Turkey or Greece, as owners of a significant fleet of Leopard 1 tanks, would be interested.
As the authors of Defence24 suggest, a real reason for the lack of interest from potential buyers in the Leopard upgrade may primarily be the availability of spare parts for these tanks, which is particularly complicated in the context of the ongoing full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine. In other words, a dilemma arises – is it worth investing in a long-term modernization of machines for which spare parts are scarce?
Moreover, from our side at Defense Express, we would like to emphasize that the issue of the "lifecycle duration/modernization cost" ratio is becoming especially acute against the backdrop of the armament shortages currently faced by the civilized world.