*Christos Loizou

During EUROSATORY 2024, international defence and security exhibition in Paris, the German company Rheinmetall presented the PANTHER EVO Main Battle Tank (MBT). 

The PANTHER EVO is based on the Leopard 2A4 tank chassis with a 120 mm L55A1 smoothbore gun and the PANTHER automatic loading system. The cannon can be replaced with a 130mm cannon – Future Gun System similar to the PANTHER KF51 MBT.

The PANTHER EVO version allows the Panther turret to be used as an upgrade of existing tanks such as the Leopard 2. As there is great compatibility between the two tanks, upgrading is easy, according to the company. Depending on requirements, the upgrade can be limited to the turret level only or extensive with the addition of further systems.

Upgrading the Leopard 2 to the PANTHER level with a 130mm gun maintains the interoperability and common operational capability of the Leopard and Panther tanks.

The DEFENCE ReDEFiNED team attended the Rheinmetall Defence Talks 2022 conference in Berlin two years ago and since then reported that Rheinmetall offers the possibility of upgrading Leopard 2 tanks with the addition of a 130 mm gun. 

At EUROSATORY 2022, Rheinmetall presented for the first time the KF-51 Panther tank with a 130 mm gun. The armament in addition to the 130 mm cannon and the automated 20-round loading system, also includes a 12.7 mm coaxial machine gun, a 7.62 mm machine gun on a Remotely Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS) “Natter,” and can be loaded with HERO 120 loitering munitions. The HERO series is made by the  Israeli UVISIONand the systems have the ability to strike beyond the visual horizon (NLOS / Non-Line-Of-Sight).

Also read: KF-51 presentation | Rheinmetall revives the German Panther with a new concept in battle tanks at EUROSATORY 2022