Leopard 1

The Leopard 1A3 tank was delivered to the Danish Army between 1976 and 1978, 120 vehicles in total.

In 1991, these tanks were supplemented with 110 used German Leopard 1A3 and 1A4. All 230 Leopard 1s were upgraded to Leopard 1A5 DK standard in 1993. The main purpose of this upgrade programme was to give the tanks the ability to fight effectively at night. They were thus equipped with a new fire control system (EMES-18), thermal sight and laser rangefinder.

A few years later, 36 Leopard 1A5 DK were upgraded to Leopard 1A5 DK-1, which were used on deployments in the Balkans. This upgrade added, among other things, a generator and an air conditioning system mounted on the rear of the turret.

While the vehicle was in service, it was common practice, that one Leopard 1 in each platoon (the so-called “third vehicle”) was equipped with a dozer blade.

In addition, two different recovery vehicles and an armoured bridge vehicle were acquired and developed on the Leopard 1 undercarriage, as was a special Danish armoured mine clearance vehicle (PNMIRK) on the Leopard 1 undercarriage.

In the exhibition at the Pansermuseet the vehicles on display are occationally exchanged. We have a Leopard 1A5 DK (62.427), a Leopard 1A5 DK-1 (62.486) which sometimes is equipped with a mine plough from the Israeli company RAMTA. Individual No. 62.425 took part in Operation “Bøllebank” (Hooligan Buster) in Bosnia in April 1994, and is therefore painted white. It has been returned to the Leopard 1A5 DK configuration as it was used in Bosnia, but had actually been converted to Leopard 1A5 DK-1 after returning home.

The 230 Leopard 1A5 tanks in the Danish Army were replaced in the period 2004-2005 by 57 Leopard 2A5.

The vehicles on display are fully roadworthy.

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