Comparing Vietnam T-90 and Singapore Leopard 2 MBT

02 Januari 2020

Vietnam T-90S/SK tank (photo : KienThuc)

T-90S/SK of Vietnam and Leopard 2 SG owned by Singapore are now considered as two of the most modern main tanks in Southeast Asia. The two types of tanks themselves have a few more points than each other in terms of features and combat efficiency.

First, in terms of price, the T-90 tank version is said to average around $ 4 to $ 4.5 million each. While the price of a Leopard 2 version of 2A4 is about $ 6 million, other versions can be twice as expensive.

In terms of fuel consumption, the T-90 main tank won completely when it cost only about 2.9 liters of fuel per kilometers to move while with Leopard 2 it was 3.75 liters/km. The consumption of more fuel will put more burden on the logistics system when fighting on a large scale.

In addition to consuming more fuel, Leopard 2 will also have a shorter journey when only traveling 400 km (on flat roads) before depleting the fuel tank. Meanwhile, this number of T-90 will be 550 km.

One of the problems that makes Leopard 2 consume more fuel than the T-90 is because it has a large engine, up to nearly 1500 horsepower. Whereas the T-90 uses only 840 horsepower versions or 1130 horsepower maximum.

The reason why only a lower-capacity engine is needed is because the T-90 is much "lighter" than Leopard 2. Specifically, while Leopard 2 weighs 68.7 tons, the T-90 weighs only 53 tons.

Singapore Leopard 2 SG (photo : Reddit)

In terms of secondary fire, the T-90 also completely overwhelmed with a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7mm anti-aircraft gun on the roof of the tank. Meanwhile, both Leopard 2 similar machine guns are only 7.62mm in size.

The main gun of the T-90 is 125mm caliber with a reserve of 43 bullets. While it is not understood why, Leopard 2's main cannon used only 120mm ammunition, but only brought 42 storage.

In terms of armored capabilities, Leopard 2 tanks are armored 1500 mm thick (converted) at every position on the vehicle. Whereas with the T-90, this number ranges from 1150 to 1550 mm.

The T-90's cannon is slightly more penetrating when it penetrates uniformly 600mm rolled steel at a distance of 2000 meters, whereas with Leopard tanks, the same firing distance penetrates only 560mm of rolled steel copper.

Thus, we can see that the Leopard 2 tanks of Singapore and T-90 that Vietnam is using are equal in overall. When going into details, the T-90 tanks are more capable in field operations, while Leopard 2 has more uniform body armor.

(KienThuc)