Belgium commits €1 billion aid to Ukraine featuring Leopard 1 revamp

According to the portal De Tijd, Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken asserts that a key issue was ensuring aid is provided by national defence companies. This involves €645 million (£542 million), and the package includes deliveries of hundreds of armoured ambulances and Unimog transport vehicles, five marine unmanned drones, helmets, medical equipment, portable drone detection systems, night vision goggles, protective clothing, and over 16,000 pieces of weaponry and arms, along with twenty modernised Cerber air defence systems.

Additionally, the package features one prototype Leopard 1 tank with a Cockerill 3105 turret, which will be tested in Ukraine. If it meets the challenges and satisfies Ukrainian expectations, it will be possible to upgrade over one hundred Leopard 1A5 tanks to a new standard.

The idea involves mounting a modern Cockerill 3105 turret on the Leopard 1 tank chassis, featuring observation capabilities and a fire control system akin to modern tanks. This includes the latest thermal imaging cameras and allows the crew to operate in a hunter-killer mode.

This significantly reduces the time from target detection to elimination, as the commander has his own sight and assigns targets to the gunner, who uses the ballistic computer to make final adjustments and fire.

Moreover, the Cockerill 3105 turret includes an autoloader and an ammunition magazine in the turret's niche with a capacity of 12 to 16 rounds, which are isolated from the crew. The turret is designed to redirect the force of an explosion outward in case of ammunition ignition. This is a major improvement over the regular Leopard 1, which stores ammunition in a poorly protected hull.

For this reason, the aluminium turret is not excessively armoured, offering protection at a maximum level V according to STANAG 4569, which provides resistance to fire from 25 mm calibre automatic guns. This also makes it very light, as the Leopard 1A5 with it weighs 41 tonnes instead of 46 tonnes. This offers Ukrainians additional capacity to equip the hull with Kontakt-1 reactive armour blocks to protect against FPV drones.

Another advantage of the new turret is the use of a new Cockerill 105 mm HP gun that can utilise modern ammunition and withstand higher pressure. This significantly enhances operational capabilities, even allowing the firing of Falarick 105 anti-tank guided missiles, developed in collaboration with Ukrainian "Łucz" plants, over a range of 5 kilometres. If the prototype does not present significant flaws, it is likely to attract Ukrainian interest.