German-French land systems consortium KNDS will exhibit the Leopard 2 MBT prototype with an unmanned turret in Eurosatory 2024. Following the EMBT prototype based on Leopard 2A7, fitted with a new turret derived from French Leclerc MBTs from Eurosatory 2023, KNDS’s new demonstration on the Leopard 2 platform incorporates a brand-new turret design. The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 demonstrator’s unmanned turret mounts a main gun, 30x113 mm RCWS, and LOS/NLOS missiles for long-range engagement. The unmanned turret has options for 120 mm, 130 mm (German), and 140 mm (French) smoothbore guns. The autoloader can load three rounds in ten seconds. The company states that an unmanned turret will allow for more compact crew distribution and shrink the occupied vulnerable area. The secondary weapon is an RCWS with Nexter’s 30M871 30x113 mm revolver cannon.
The RCWS is capable of firing proximity or air-burst ammunition to defend against small UAVs and entrenched infantry.
The tertiary weapon will be an undecided missile system for LOS or NLOS engagements at ranges that are too long for the main gun. Rheinmetall previously exhibited its KF-51 MBT with Hero-120 loitering munitions embedded in the turret similarly during Eurosatory 2023.
Other than the firepower, the unmanned turret will allow for small UAVs and active protection systems.
This demonstrator can be taken as another step in the European MGCS project to develop a family of armoured combat vehicles, including a new MBT. Unmanned turrets and NLOS engagement capability have been among the planned features for the next-generation MBT, which will replace Leopard 2 and Leclerc MBTs.
