Leopard 1

The Leopard 1 is a West German main battle tank that entered service in 1965, developed after West Germany and France jointly explored, and ultimately abandoned, a common European tank program, resulting in West Germany's own design that emphasized mobility and a powerful gun over the heavier armor protection favored by some contemporaries, reflecting a design philosophy that speed and firepower, rather than passive armor alone, offered the best protection on a modern battlefield. Armed with a license-built version of the British L7 105mm gun also used on contemporaries such as the American M60 and British Centurion, the Leopard 1 combined a relatively light chassis with strong mobility, making it well suited to the mobile defense doctrine West Germany's NATO forces planned for a potential Cold War conflict in Central Europe. It was widely exported and license-produced across NATO and allied countries including Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia, and though succeeded in German service by the more heavily armored Leopard 2, various operators kept upgraded Leopard 1s in active or reserve service for decades afterward.