Brigade Nord ( Brig. N. ; Northern Brigade) is the major combat formation and only brigade of the Norwegian Army . The Brigade will raise 1 new Armoured Battalion in 2026-32. 2nd Battalion are converting to Armoured Battalion from 2020. It is mostly based in mid-Troms ( Bardu Municipality and Målselv Municipality ) north of the Arctic Circle . Until 2009, the brigade was part of the 6th Division .
159-539: Responsible for the eight battalions, Brigade Nord ensures that they are equipped and trained to operate together. Brigade Nord is a complete, tactical joint system that has the overall command, ensuring cooperation and effectiveness across the battalions. Brigade Nord is largely organised according to the same principles today as when it was established in 1953, as the Brigade in Northern Norway, with subdivisions representing
318-767: A German rebuilding effort set forth by western European countries in 1948, the US, Britain and France spearheaded the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany from the three Western zones of occupation in April 1949. The Soviet Union proclaimed its zone of occupation in Germany the German Democratic Republic that October. Media in the Eastern Bloc was an organ of the state , completely reliant on and subservient to
477-410: A dedicated subject field. Brigade Nord currently consists of eight battalions, brigade staffs and a military police company, which in total account for about 5,000 soldiers. The brigade is in the process of reorganisation. A previous transformation of the 2. bataljon to light infantry has been reverted and a fourth mechanised battalion is being formed. The reason for a fourth maneuver battalion stated by
636-510: A distance of 1,500 m (4,900 ft). The Leopard 2A4's armour has a maximum physical thickness of 800 millimetres (31 in) based on unofficial measurements and estimates made by former conscripts and professional soldiers of the German army. On the Leopard 2A5 and subsequent models, the thickness is increased by the wedge-shaped armour module to 1,500 millimetres (59 in). The side and
795-565: A future Leopard 2 upgrade. In 1989, the Kampfwertsteigerung (combat potential improvement) programme was initiated in Germany with the delivery of first prototypes. The official military requirements were published in March 1990. The KWS programme was projected to consist of three stages. The first stage replaced the Rheinmetall 120 mm L/44 gun barrel and the corresponding gun mount with
954-589: A higher pressure 120 mm (4.7 in) gun firing new ammunition, expected to deliver 20 percent better performance than the L/55 . Mid-term efforts will focus on a Rheinmetall 130 mm (5.1 in) cannon concept offering 50 percent better armour penetration. With the Russian T-14 Armata being equipped with the Afghanit , an active protection system designed to mitigate the effectiveness of ATGM , more importance
1113-404: A higher rate and supply chains are able to deliver sufficient materials. While previous models only varied in detail, the Leopard 2A4 introduced a digital ballistic computer and an improved fire extinguishing system. Starting with the sixth batch, tanks were fitted with an improved armour array and new side skirts. In 1984, the German military procurement agency stated a number of requirements for
1272-432: A longer barrelled and more lethal L/55 version. This stage was adopted in the form of 225 Leopard 2A6 tanks, starting in 2001 and lasting until 2005. Stage 2 focused on improvements of armour protection and survivability: it was adopted in the form of the Leopard 2A5, starting in 1995. The base armour of the tank was exchanged and additional armour modules were installed at the turret. The first batch of 225 Leopard 2 tanks
1431-510: A major propaganda effort began in 1949 was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty , dedicated to bringing about the peaceful demise of the communist system in the Eastern Bloc. Radio Free Europe attempted to achieve these goals by serving as a surrogate home radio station, an alternative to the controlled and party-dominated domestic press in the Soviet Bloc. Radio Free Europe was a product of some of
1590-626: A neutral Germany to prevent West Germany's incorporation into NATO, but his attempts were cut short after he was executed several months later during a Soviet power struggle. The events led to the establishment of the Bundeswehr , the West German military, in 1955. In 1949, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong 's People's Liberation Army defeated Chiang Kai-shek 's United States-backed Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist Government in China. The KMT-controlled territory
1749-606: A new war". On 6 September 1946, James F. Byrnes delivered a speech in Germany repudiating the Morgenthau Plan (a proposal to partition and de-industrialize post-war Germany) and warning the Soviets that the US intended to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely. As Byrnes stated a month later, "The nub of our program was to win the German people ... it was a battle between us and Russia over minds ..." In December,
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#17328441439381908-545: A number of different companies. IBD Deisenroth has developed upgrades with MEXAS and Advanced Modular Armour Protection (AMAP) composite armour, the latter is being used on Singaporean and Indonesian Leopard 2 tanks. RUAG has developed an armour upgrade utilizing their SidePRO-ATR composite armour. This upgrade was first presented on the IAV 2013. Cold War The Cold War was a period of global geopolitical tension and struggle for ideological and economic influence between
2067-683: A plan envisioning an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already taken by the Soviets. In June 1947, in accordance with the Truman Doctrine , the United States enacted the Marshall Plan , a pledge of economic assistance for all European countries willing to participate, including the Soviet Union. Under the plan, which President Harry S. Truman signed on 3 April 1948,
2226-409: A projected weight of MLC50 , which equals approximately 47.5 tonnes (46.7 long tons; 52.4 short tons). The welded turret utilised spaced armour formed by two steel plates. The prototypes were equipped with an EMES-12 optical rangefinder and fire control system, which later was adopted on the Leopard 1A4. In mid-1973 a new turret was designed by Wegmann saving 1.5 tonnes (1.7 short tons) in weight. It
2385-556: A result, the modification of the Leopard 2 prototypes in order to meet the US Army requirements was investigated. Following a number of further talks, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on December 11, 1974, between Germany and the US, which declared that a modified version of the Leopard 2 should be trialed by the US against their XM1 prototypes, after the Americans had bought and investigated prototype PT07 in 1973. The MoU obliged
2544-613: A secret 1950 document, the National Security Council proposed reinforcing pro-Western alliance systems and quadrupling spending on defense. Truman, under the influence of advisor Paul Nitze , saw containment as implying complete rollback of Soviet influence in all its forms. United States officials moved to expand this version of containment into Asia , Africa , and Latin America , in order to counter revolutionary nationalist movements, often led by communist parties financed by
2703-477: A source of intelligence. During the late 1970s and 1980s, the KGB perfected its use of espionage to sway and distort diplomacy. Active measures were "clandestine operations designed to further Soviet foreign policy goals," consisting of disinformation, forgeries, leaks to foreign media, and the channeling of aid to militant groups. Retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin , former head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for
2862-507: A standing unit, it was an essential part of the land military invasion defense in Northern Norway; as a complete brigade, with all types of weapons and troops, it was an important training institution for the field army. During the Cold War , the brigade was central to the defense against a possible invasion from the Soviet Union . The brigade was stationed in the eastern valleys of Troms, which
3021-552: A tank jointly with France as a successor to both the Leopard 2 and Leclerc tanks. Technologies and concepts will be investigated to determine what capabilities are needed in a future tank. Deployment of the new tank, titled Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), will be preceded by incremental upgrades to the Leopard 2, including a new digital turret core system and situational awareness system and an active protection system (APS). A short-term lethality increase will come from
3180-530: A unified and neutral Germany was undesirable, with Walter Bedell Smith telling General Eisenhower "in spite of our announced position, we really do not want nor intend to accept German unification on any terms that the Russians might agree to, even though they seem to meet most of our requirements." Shortly thereafter, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade (June 1948 – May 1949), one of the first major crises of
3339-552: A way that it would match the firepower requirements of the MBT-70. A high first-hit probability at ranges of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and the ability to accurately engage targets on the move using a computerised fire control system were the main goals of the experimental development. The resulting vehicles were nicknamed Keiler ("tusker"). Two prototypes (ET 01 and ET 02) of the Keiler were built in 1969 and 1970, both of them being powered by
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#17328441439383498-567: Is a smoothbore 120 mm cannon made by Rheinmetall . This is operated with a digital fire control system , laser rangefinder , and advanced night vision and sighting equipment. The tank is powered by a V12 twin-turbo diesel engine made by MTU Friedrichshafen . In the 1990s, the Leopard 2 was used by the German Army on peacekeeping operations in Kosovo . In the 2000s, Dutch , Danish and Canadian forces deployed their Leopard 2 tanks in
3657-535: Is a third generation German main battle tank (MBT). Developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s, the tank entered service in 1979 and replaced the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West German army . Various iterations of the Leopard 2 continue to be operated by the armed forces of Germany , as well as 13 other European countries, and several non-European countries, including Canada, Chile, Indonesia, and Singapore. Some operating countries have licensed
3816-461: Is being placed on direct-fire weapons. The Leopard 2 uses spaced multilayer armour throughout the design. The armour consists of a combination of steel plates of different hardness, elastic materials, and other non-metallic materials. Steel plates with high hardness and high ductility are used. The armour is a result of extensive research about the formation and penetration mechanism of shaped charge jets. The Leopard 2's armour might be based on
3975-551: The Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic ". A week later, on 13 March, Stalin responded vigorously to the speech, saying Churchill could be compared to Adolf Hitler insofar as he advocated the racial superiority of English-speaking nations so that they could satisfy their hunger for world domination, and that such a declaration was "a call for war on the USSR." The Soviet leader also dismissed
4134-806: The Berlin Wall to prevent the citizens of East Berlin from fleeing to West Berlin , at the time part of United States-allied West Germany . Major crises of this phase included the Berlin Blockade of 1948–1949, the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1945–1949, the Korean War of 1950–1953, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Suez Crisis of that same year, the Berlin Crisis of 1961 ,
4293-852: The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and the Vietnam War of 1964–1975. Both superpowers competed for influence in Latin America and the Middle East , and the decolonising states of Africa , Asia , and Oceania . Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, this phase of the Cold War saw the Sino-Soviet split . Between China and the Soviet Union's complicated relations within the Communist sphere, leading to
4452-837: The Eastern Bloc . Cominform faced an embarrassing setback the following June, when the Tito–Stalin split obliged its members to expel Yugoslavia, which remained communist but adopted a non-aligned position and began accepting financial aid from the US. Besides Berlin, the status of the city of Trieste was at issue. Until the break between Tito and Stalin, the Western powers and the Eastern bloc faced each other uncompromisingly. In addition to capitalism and communism, Italians and Slovenes, monarchists and republicans as well as war winners and losers often faced each other irreconcilably. The neutral buffer state Free Territory of Trieste , founded in 1947 with
4611-503: The KGB and involved in its intelligence operations, adhered to Moscow's line, although dissent began to appear after 1956. Other critiques of the consensus policy came from anti-Vietnam War activists , the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , and the anti-nuclear movement . In early 1947, France, Britain and the United States unsuccessfully attempted to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union for
4770-506: The Kingdom of Greece in its civil war against Communist-led insurgents. In the same month, Stalin conducted the rigged 1947 Polish legislative election which constituted an open breach of the Yalta Agreement . The US government responded to this announcement by adopting a policy of containment , with the goal of stopping the spread of communism . Truman delivered a speech calling for
4929-717: The Marshall Plan in 1948 to assist in Western Europe's economic recovery, and founded the NATO military alliance in 1949 (which was matched by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact in 1955). The Berlin Blockade took place, and Germany's occupation zones solidified into East and West Germany in 1949. The USSR tested its first nuclear weapon in August 1949, four years after the U.S.'s first test , thus starting an arms race. A major proxy war
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5088-465: The Second World and was also tied to a network of authoritarian states. The Soviet Union had a command economy and installed similarly communist regimes its in satellites. United States involvement in regime change during the Cold War included support for anti-communist and right-wing dictatorships , governments, and uprisings across the world, while Soviet involvement in regime change included
5247-556: The Sino-Soviet border conflict , while France, a Western Bloc state, began to demand greater autonomy of action. The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia occurred to suppress the Prague Spring of 1968, while the United States experienced internal turmoil from the civil rights movement and opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War . In the 1960s–1970s, an international peace movement took root among citizens around
5406-718: The Soviet boycott of the Allied Control Council and its incapacitation, an event marking the beginning of the full-blown Cold War and the end of its prelude, as well as ending any hopes at the time for a single German government and leading to formation in 1949 of the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic . The twin policies of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan led to billions in economic and military aid for Western Europe, Greece, and Turkey. With
5565-593: The Turkish Straits crisis and Black Sea border disputes were also a major factor in increasing tensions. In September, the Soviet side produced the Novikov telegram, sent by the Soviet ambassador to the US but commissioned and "co-authored" by Vyacheslav Molotov ; it portrayed the US as being in the grip of monopoly capitalists who were building up military capability "to prepare the conditions for winning world supremacy in
5724-547: The United Nations Security Council Resolution 82 and 83 backed the defense of South Korea, although the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest of the fact that Taiwan (Republic of China), not the People's Republic of China , held a permanent seat on the council. A UN force of sixteen countries faced North Korea, although 40 percent of troops were South Korean, and about 50 percent were from
5883-549: The United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc , that started in 1947, two years after the end of World War II , and lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers , though each supported opposing sides in major regional conflicts known as proxy wars . Aside from
6042-752: The War in Afghanistan as part of their contribution to the International Security Assistance Force . In the 2010s, Turkish Leopard 2 tanks saw action in Syria . Since 2023, Ukrainian Leopard 2 tanks are seeing action in the Russo-Ukrainian war . Even as the Leopard 1 was just entering service, the West German military was interested in producing an improved tank in the next decade. This resulted in
6201-561: The nuclear arms race starting in 1949 and conventional military deployment , the struggle for dominance was expressed indirectly via psychological warfare , propaganda campaigns , espionage , far-reaching embargoes , sports diplomacy , and technological competitions such as the Space Race . The US and USSR were both part of the Allies of World War II , the military coalition which had defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. After
6360-493: The APU and the mechanical loading assistant. Due to the design and production of the Leopard 2AV taking more time than expected, the shipment to the US and the US evaluation was delayed. It was not possible to test the Leopard 2AV before 1 September 1976. Despite the German wish that the Leopard 2AV and the XM1 prototypes would be evaluated at the same time, the US Army decided not to wait for
6519-618: The Armed Forces is a NATO requirement four combat battalions in the combat brigades of the organisation, but in the words of Lt.-Col. Espen Strande, the army's chief public communications officer, the army has the sufficient armament and equipment for only two. A tender for new main battle tanks for the army is in progress with the 2A7 version of the German Leopard 2 currently operated and the South Korean K2 Black Panther as
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6678-519: The British Burlington armour , which had already been demonstrated to West Germany in 1970. Later, in the mid-1970s, full details about Burlington were handed over to the West German government. The frontal arc of the Leopard 2's armour is designed to withstand large caliber kinetic energy penetrators and shaped charge projectiles. During the 1980s, it was estimated that the Leopard 2's front would resist 125 mm (4.9 in) armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds fired from
6837-446: The British newspaper Tribune . Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of nuclear warfare , Orwell looked at James Burnham 's predictions of a polarized world, writing: Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery... James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications—that is,
6996-414: The Cold War was in its essence a war of ideas. The United States, acting through the CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world. The CIA also covertly sponsored a domestic propaganda campaign called Crusade for Freedom . The rearmament of West Germany was achieved in the early 1950s. Its main promoter was Konrad Adenauer ,
7155-404: The Cold War, preventing Western food, materials and supplies from arriving in the West Germany's exclave of West Berlin . The United States (primarily), Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries began the massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions despite Soviet threats. The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against
7314-408: The Communist governments militarily. The fall of the Iron Curtain after the Pan-European Picnic and the Revolutions of 1989 , which represented a peaceful revolutionary wave with the exception of the Romanian revolution and the Afghan Civil War (1989–1992) , overthrew almost all of the Marxist–Leninist regimes of the Eastern Bloc. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control in
7473-410: The Diehl tracks had a higher endurance, while the tracks used on the XM1 prototypes failed to meet the Army's requirements. The heat signature of the MTU diesel engine was much lower. The fire control system and the sights of the Leopard 2 were considered to be better and the 120 mm (4.7 in) gun proved to be superior. The projected production costs for one XM1 tank were US$ 728,000 in 1976, and
7632-430: The Federal Republic of Germany to send a complete prototype, a hull, a vehicle for ballistic tests and a number of special ballistic parts to the US, where they would be put through US testing procedures for no additional costs. The Leopard 2AV ( austere version ) was based on the experiences of the previous Leopard 2 development. It was created in order to meet the US requirements and the latest protection requirements of
7791-408: The German Brigade to Northern Norway. One challenge was deciding in which garrion to place the different brigade detachments. Another urgent challenge was that not all the establishments were ready to accommodate the battalions. The construction of new barracks was prioritized in Setermoen garrison and Maukstadmoen camp. This led to soldiers using temporary barracks and tents. It was a demanding task for
7950-422: The German MoD. The T14 mod turret was used as the base for the Leopard 2AV's turret, but meeting the required level of protection for the hull required several attempts until the final ballistic trials on 23 to 26 June 1976. Following the US' preference of laser rangefinders , the turret of prototype PT19 was fitted with a laser rangefinder developed together with the American company Hughes . In comparison with
8109-400: The KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of Soviet intelligence ." During the Sino-Soviet split , "spy wars" also occurred between the USSR and PRC. In September 1947, the Soviets created Cominform to impose orthodoxy within the international communist movement and tighten political control over Soviet satellites through coordination of communist parties in
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#17328441439388268-402: The Krupp Atlas Elektronik EMES-13 fire control system and the 120 mm (4.7 in) Rheinmetall gun. The Leopard 2AV fully met the US requirements. A study made by the American FMC Corporation showed that it was possible to produce the Leopard 2AV under licence in America without exceeding the cost limits set by the US Army. Before the trials were finished, it was decided that instead of
8427-413: The Leopard 1A4 with 105/120 mm smoothbore gun, improved armour protection, a new fire control system and a 890 kilowatts (1,190 hp) or 1,100 kilowatts (1,500 hp) engine. Various changes were applied to the Leopard 2 design before the series production started in 1979. The engine, transmission, and suspension were slightly modified and improved. The ballistic protection of the turret and hull
8586-436: The Leopard 2 design for local production and domestic development. There are two main development tranches of the Leopard 2. The first encompasses tanks produced up to the Leopard 2A4 standard and are characterised by their vertically faced turret armour. The second tranche, from Leopard 2A5 onwards, has an angled, arrow-shaped, turret appliqué armour , together with other improvements. The main armament of all Leopard 2 tanks
8745-497: The Leopard 2 was tested by MaK. The AGT-1500 was from the United States and required deep modifications to the Leopard 2's chassis. However, driving tests at the WTD 41 revealed a number of drawbacks such as high fuel consumption and the poor performance of the transmission including the brakes. This project was thus terminated. In January 1977 Germany ordered a small pre-series of three hulls and two turrets which were delivered in 1978. These vehicles had increased armour protection on
8904-434: The Leopard 2, the costs of the XM1 Abrams , U.S. prototype tank developed after the MBT-70, could be reduced. A German commission was sent to the US to evaluate the harmonisation of components between the XM1 and Leopard 2. However, under American law it was not possible for a public bidder to interfere in a procurement tender after a contract with intention of profits and deadline was awarded to private sector companies. As
9063-409: The Leopard 2AV and tested the XM1 prototypes from Chrysler and General Motors beforehand. Two new prototype hulls and three turrets were shipped to the US: PT20 mounting a 105 mm (4.1 in) rifled L7 gun and a Hughes fire control system, PT19 with the same fire control system but able to swap out the gun for the 120 mm (4.7 in) Rheinmetall smoothbore gun, and the PT21 fitted with
9222-423: The Leopard design. The projected upgrades added an autoloader , a coaxial autocannon and an independent commander's periscope. The anti-air machine gun could be operated from inside the vehicle and a TV surveillance camera was mounted on an extendable mast. The shape of the turret and hull was optimised using cast steel armour, while the suspension, transmission, and engine exhaust vents were improved. Following
9381-420: The MB 872 engine. The MBT-70 was a revolutionary design, but after large cost overruns and technological problems, Germany withdrew from the project in 1969. After unsuccessful attempts at saving the MBT-70 by conceptual changes in order to eliminate the biggest issue—the driver being seated in the turret—it became clear in late 1969 that Germany would stop the bi-national development. The assistant secretary of
9540-428: The Marshall Plan, seeing it as an effort by the US to impose its influence on Europe. In response, the Soviet Union established Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) to foster economic cooperation among communist states. The United States and its Western European allies sought to strengthen their bonds and used the policy of containment against Soviet influence; they accomplished this most notably through
9699-418: The Norwegian Armed Forces' building technical corps to build barracks and technical garages in time for the last contigent of the Independent Norwegian Brigade was in place in Troms. In 1951, the Norwegian Parliament adopted a three-year building program, in order to be able to house the brigade soldiers and officers. This national building program had a price tag of 735 million kroner, of which 60 million went to
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#17328441439389858-446: The Russian Civil War further complicated relations, and although the Soviet Union later allied with Western powers to defeat Nazi Germany , this cooperation was strained by mutual suspicions. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, disagreements about the future of Europe, particularly Eastern Europe , became central. The Soviet Union's establishment of communist regimes in the countries it had liberated from Nazi control—enforced by
10017-408: The Soviet Union was used to monitor dissent from official Soviet politics and morals. Although to an extent disinformation had always existed, the term itself was invented, and the strategy formalized by a black propaganda department of the Soviet KGB. Based on the amount of top-secret Cold War archival information that has been released, historian Raymond L. Garthoff concludes there probably
10176-400: The Soviet Union, which at the time was undergoing the Era of Stagnation . This phase saw the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introducing the liberalizing reforms of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("reorganization") and ending Soviet involvement in Afghanistan in 1989. Pressures for national sovereignty grew stronger in Eastern Europe, and Gorbachev refused to further support
10335-499: The Soviet Union. A number of self-proclaimed Marxist–Leninist governments were formed in the second half of the 1970s in developing countries , including Angola , Mozambique , Ethiopia , Cambodia , Afghanistan , and Nicaragua . Détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. Beginning in the 1980s, this phase was another period of elevated tension. The Reagan Doctrine led to increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on
10494-455: The Soviets accumulated after broken promises by Stalin and Molotov concerning Europe and Iran. Following the World War II Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran , the country was occupied by the Red Army in the far north and the British in the south. Iran was used by the United States and British to supply the Soviet Union, and the Allies agreed to withdraw from Iran within six months after the cessation of hostilities. However, when this deadline came,
10653-425: The Soviets agreed to withdraw from Iran after persistent US pressure, an early success of containment policy. By 1947, US president Harry S. Truman was outraged by the perceived resistance of the Soviet Union to American demands in Iran, Turkey, and Greece, as well as Soviet rejection of the Baruch Plan on nuclear weapons. In February 1947, the British government announced that it could no longer afford to finance
10812-404: The Soviets had permitted to retain democratic structures. The public brutality of the coup shocked Western powers more than any event up to that point, set in motion a brief scare that war would occur, and swept away the last vestiges of opposition to the Marshall Plan in the United States Congress. In an immediate aftermath of the crisis, the London Six-Power Conference was held, resulting in
10971-426: The Soviets remained in Iran under the guise of the Azerbaijan People's Government and Kurdish Republic of Mahabad . Shortly thereafter, on 5 March, former British prime minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous " Iron Curtain " speech in Fulton, Missouri . The speech called for an Anglo-American alliance against the Soviets, whom he accused of establishing an "iron curtain" dividing Europe from " Stettin in
11130-455: The Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of a US bipartisan defense and foreign policy consensus between Republicans and Democrats focused on containment and deterrence that weakened during and after the Vietnam War , but ultimately persisted thereafter. Moderate and conservative parties in Europe, as well as social democrats, gave virtually unconditional support to the Western alliance, while European and American Communists , financed by
11289-402: The U.S. The USSR solidified its domination of Eastern Europe with the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Both powers used economic aid in an attempt to win the loyalty of non-aligned countries , such as India . After the Sino-Soviet split between the USSR and China in 1961, the U.S. initiated contacts with China in 1972 . In
11448-417: The US Army possibly adopting the Leopard 2AV, the focus was shifted to the possibilities of common components between the two tanks. FMC, after having acquired the licenses for the production of the Leopard 2AV, decided not to submit a technical proposal, as they saw little to no chance for the US Army adopting a vehicle not developed in the US. The US Army evaluation showed that on the XM1 a larger portion of
11607-552: The US assistance, the Greek military won its civil war . Under the leadership of Alcide De Gasperi the Italian Christian Democrats defeated the powerful Communist – Socialist alliance in the elections of 1948 . All major powers engaged in espionage, using a great variety of spies, double agents , moles , and new technologies such as the tapping of telephone cables. The Soviet KGB ("Committee for State Security"),
11766-572: The US government gave to Western European countries over $ 13 billion (equivalent to $ 189 billion in 2016) to rebuild the economy of Europe . Later, the program led to the creation of the OECD . The plan's aim was to rebuild the democratic and economic systems of Europe and to counter perceived threats to the European balance of power , such as communist parties seizing control through revolutions or elections. The plan also stated that European prosperity
11925-572: The US was trying to buy a pro-US re-alignment of Europe. Stalin therefore prevented Eastern Bloc nations from receiving Marshall Plan aid. The Soviet Union's alternative to the Marshall Plan, which was purported to involve Soviet subsidies and trade with central and eastern Europe, became known as the Molotov Plan (later institutionalized in January 1949 as the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ). Stalin
12084-477: The USSR. In this way, this US would exercise " preponderant power ," oppose neutrality, and establish global hegemony . In the early 1950s (a period sometimes known as the " Pactomania "), the US formalized a series of alliances with Japan (a former WWII enemy), South Korea , Taiwan , Australia , New Zealand , Thailand and the Philippines (notably ANZUS in 1951 and SEATO in 1954), thereby guaranteeing
12243-516: The United Nations, was split up and dissolved in 1954 and 1975, also because of the détente between the West and Tito. The US and Britain merged their western German occupation zones into " Bizone " (1 January 1947, later "Trizone" with the addition of France's zone, April 1949). As part of the economic rebuilding of Germany, in early 1948, representatives of a number of Western European governments and
12402-509: The United States a number of long-term military bases. One of the more significant examples of the implementation of containment was the United Nations US-led intervention in the Korean War . In June 1950, after years of mutual hostilities, Kim Il Sung 's North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea at the 38th parallel . Stalin had been reluctant to support the invasion but ultimately sent advisers. To Stalin's surprise,
12561-401: The United States announced an agreement for a merger of western German areas into a federal governmental system. In addition, in accordance with the Marshall Plan , they began to re-industrialize and rebuild the West German economy, including the introduction of a new Deutsche Mark currency to replace the old Reichsmark currency that the Soviets had debased. The US had secretly decided that
12720-504: The Warsaw Pact's primary function was to safeguard Soviet hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away; in the 1960s, the pact evolved into a multilateral alliance, in which the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact members gained significant scope to pursue their own interests. In 1961, Soviet-allied East Germany constructed
12879-469: The Western agencies paid special attention to debriefing Eastern Bloc defectors . Edward Jay Epstein describes that the CIA understood that the KGB used "provocations", or fake defections, as a trick to embarrass Western intelligence and establish Soviet double agents. As a result, from 1959 to 1973, the CIA required that East Bloc defectors went through a counterintelligence investigation before being recruited as
13038-408: The XM1. Instead of using actual performance data, the calculated hypothetical acceleration was used. The XM1 was found to have a slightly higher rate of fire despite having internal layouts similar to the Leopard 2AV because the XM1 prototypes were manned by professional crews, while the Leopard 2AV had to be manned by conscripts in order to prove that the Leopard 2AV was not too complicated. Firing on
13197-477: The XM150 gun/launcher weapon of the MBT-70. In 1971, 17 prototypes were ordered but only 16 hulls were built as the production of hull PT12 was cancelled. Ten were ordered initially before another seven were ordered. The 17 turrets were designated T1 to T17, and the hulls were designated PT1 to PT11 and PT13 to PT17. To test a larger number of components and concepts, each prototype was fitted with components not found on
13356-456: The accusation that the USSR was exerting increasing control over the countries lying in its sphere. He argued that there was nothing surprising in "the fact that the Soviet Union, anxious for its future safety, [was] trying to see to it that governments loyal in their attitude to the Soviet Union should exist in these countries." Soviet territorial demands to Turkey regarding the Dardanelles in
13515-547: The allocation of $ 400 million to intervene in the war and unveiled the Truman Doctrine , which framed the conflict as a contest between free peoples and totalitarian regimes. American policymakers accused the Soviet Union of conspiring against the Greek royalists in an effort to expand Soviet influence even though Stalin had told the Communist Party to cooperate with the British-backed government. Enunciation of
13674-404: The armour has been gradually improved over the years. A modified version of spaced multilayer armour was introduced beginning with the 97th vehicle of the 6th production batch. The same batch also introduced an improved type of heavy ballistic skirts. The Leopard 2A5 upgrade focused on increased armour protection. While upgrading a Leopard 2 tank to the Leopard 2A5 configuration, the roof covering
13833-483: The armour modules is cut open and new armour modules are inserted. New additional armour modules made of laminated armour cover the frontal arc of the turret. They have a distinctive arrowhead shape and improve protection against both kinetic penetrators and shaped charges. The side skirts also incorporate improved armour protection. A 25 mm (0.98 in) thick spall liner reduces the danger of crew injuries in case of armour penetration. The Leopard 2A7 features
13992-579: The army into three divisions: 1st Division Command in the east, 3rd Division Command in the south and 6th Division Command in the north. Based on a report from the Norwegian Post-War Army Command, The Norwegian Parliament prepared a draft for a new defence organization, with Parliamentary Proposition no. 2 (1953) “The Organization of the Armed Forces”, which has enormous significance for the Army in
14151-536: The brigade were therefore on high alert for long periods of time, down to 30 minutes, in order to meet an attack. A parliamentary decision from July 1953 stipulated that the two standing brigades in the new army structure should act as standing contingency forces in exposed areas, until mobilization was initiated. Throughout its existence, the brigade was central to the training and education of Norwegian army soldiers and units, from all types of troops. The soldiers were trained in basic military skills while practicing under
14310-477: The bureau responsible for foreign espionage and internal surveillance, was famous for its effectiveness. The most famous Soviet operation involved its atomic spies that delivered crucial information from the United States' Manhattan Project , leading the USSR to detonate its first nuclear weapon in 1949, four years after the American detonation and much sooner than expected. A massive network of informants throughout
14469-693: The chancellor of West Germany, with France the main opponent. Washington had the decisive voice. It was strongly supported by the Pentagon (the US military leadership), and weakly opposed by President Truman; the State Department was ambivalent. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 changed the calculations and Washington now gave full support. That also involved naming Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge of NATO forces and sending more American troops to West Germany. There
14628-508: The communist party. Radio and television organizations were state-owned, while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local communist party. Soviet radio broadcasts used Marxist rhetoric to attack capitalism, emphasizing themes of labor exploitation, imperialism and war-mongering. Along with the broadcasts of the BBC and the Voice of America to Central and Eastern Europe,
14787-461: The communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Western Bloc included the US and a number of First World nations that were generally capitalist and liberal democratic but tied to a network of often authoritarian Third World states, most of which were the European powers' former colonies . The Eastern Bloc was led by the Soviet Union and its communist party , which had an influence across
14946-536: The costs for one Leopard 2AV were US$ 56,000 higher. After the American evaluation of the Leopard 2AV and the US Army's decision to opt for the XM1 Abrams, both American and German sources blamed the other side. US Army test officials discovered that the PT19 Leopard 2AV prototype used for mobility trials did not contain special armour. In Germany, the test conditions were criticised for being unrealistic and favouring
15105-492: The country and was banned following the 1991 Soviet coup attempt that August. This in turn led to the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and the collapse of Communist governments across much of Africa and Asia. The Russian Federation became the Soviet Union's successor state, while many of the other republics emerged from the Soviet Union's collapse as fully independent post-Soviet states . The United States
15264-487: The development based on the earlier Keiler project of the late 1960s, instead of finishing the development of the Eber . In 1971, the name of the design was determined as Leopard 2 with the original Leopard retroactively becoming the Leopard 1, and Paul-Werner Krapke became the project officer of the Leopard 2 program. Originally two versions were projected: the gun-armed Leopard 2K and the Leopard 2FK, which would be armed with
15423-439: The driver's station. The bottles are connected to pipes and hoses and are activated automatically by the fire detection system when temperatures rise above 82 °C (180 °F) inside the fighting compartment, or manually via a control panel in the driver's compartment. An extra 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) halon fire extinguisher is stored on the floor beneath the main gun. Following Leopard 2's introduction into service in 1979,
15582-523: The earlier Leopard 2 prototypes, the fire control system was simplified by replacing the EMES-12 optical rangefinder and removing the crosswind sensor, the air pressure and temperature sensors, the powder temperature sensor, the PERI R12 commander sight with IR searchlight, the short-range grenade launcher for use against infantry, the retractable searchlight, the spotlight, the retractable passive night vision sight,
15741-537: The end of the Gilded Leopard study in 1967, the West German government decided to focus on the Experimentalentwicklung (experimental development) in a feasibility study and to develop new components for upgrading the Leopard 1 and for use on a future main battle tank programme. At first 25 million DM were invested, but after the industry came to the conclusion that with such a low budget the development of
15900-632: The end of the second world war, when the British government requested Norwegian military support in the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany . In 1946, the Independent Norwegian Brigade (in Norwegian : Tysklandsbrigaden , lit. ' The German Brigade ' ) was founded. This expeditionary brigade consisted of a contigent of 4200 young conscripts, which served six months in Germany, before
16059-462: The exception of Dutch Leopard 2s, which are equipped instead with a Dutch-designed smoke mortar system with six barrels on each side. Swedish Stridsvagn 122 utilises French GALIX smoke dispensers, similar to the system found on the French Leclerc. The Leopard 2 is equipped with a fire protection system. Four 9 kg (20 lb) halon fire extinguisher bottles are installed on the right behind
16218-498: The explosion and fire away from the crew. The crew is also protected against nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) threats, as the Leopard 2 is equipped with a Dräger NBC overpressurization system, which provides up to 4 hPA over-pressure inside the vehicle. Two groups of four Wegmann 76 mm (3.0 in) smoke mortars are mounted on either side of the turret and can be electrically fired either as single rounds or in salvos of four. They are mounted on most Leopard 2 models, with
16377-505: The flanks of the turret and hull, while slat armour can be adapted at the vehicle's rear. The armour modules provide protection against the RPG-7, which depending on the warhead can penetrate between 280 millimetres (11 in) and 600 millimetres (24 in) of steel armour. The Leopard 2A6M CAN increases protection against rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) by including additional slat armour . Additional armour packages have been developed by
16536-454: The formation of NATO , which was essentially a defensive agreement in 1949. The Soviet Union countered with the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which had similar results with the Eastern Bloc. As by that time the Soviet Union already had an armed presence and political domination all over its eastern satellite states, the pact has been long considered superfluous. Although nominally a defensive alliance,
16695-484: The front of the hull. One of the hulls was fitted with the earlier T21 turret and was used by the German army school in Munster for troop trials until 1979. In September 1977, 1,800 Leopard 2 tanks were ordered, to be produced in five batches. The main contractor was Krauss-Maffei, but Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was awarded a contract for producing 45% of the tanks. The first batch consisted of 380 tanks. The delivery of six tanks
16854-486: The funding of left-wing parties , wars of independence , revolutions and dictatorships. As nearly all the colonial states underwent decolonization and achieved independence in the period from 1945 to 1960, many became Third World battlefields in the Cold War. At the end of World War II, English writer George Orwell used cold war , as a general term, in his essay "You and the Atomic Bomb", published 19 October 1945 in
17013-454: The garrisons of the brigade became independent garrisons directly under the command of the 6th Division Command. In 2002, the brigade was reestablished as Brigade Nord ( lit. ' Brigade North ' ). This article about a specific military unit is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about the military of Norway is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Leopard 2 The Leopard 2
17172-470: The hull (like mines with bending wire triggers) and explosively formed penetrator mines. The weight of the Leopard 2A6M is 62.5 tonnes (61.5 long tons; 68.9 short tons). The latest version of the tank is the Leopard 2A7, which entered service in an initial batch of 20 tanks in 2014. Already before the first Leopard 2A7 tank was handed over to the German Army, plans for upgrades were made. At this time an "extensive" increase in combat value, while retaining
17331-518: The kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of "cold war" with its neighbours. In The Observer of 10 March 1946, Orwell wrote, "...after the Moscow conference last December, Russia began to make a 'cold war' on Britain and the British Empire." The first use of the term to describe
17490-442: The latest generation of passive armour and belly armour providing protection against mines and IEDs. The Leopard 2A7 is fitted with adapters for mounting additional armour modules or protection systems against RPGs. For urban combat, the Leopard 2 can be fitted with different packages of modular armour. The Leopard 2A4M CAN, Leopard 2 PSO (Peace Support Operations) and the Leopard 2A7 can mount thick modules of composite armour along
17649-469: The military procurement division of the German Ministry of Defence suggested reusing as many technologies developed for the MBT-70 as possible in a further programme, which was nicknamed Eber ("boar") due to his being named Eberhardt. The Eber used a modified MBT-70 turret and hull, with the driver being seated in the hull. Only a wooden mock-up was made. One year later, a choice was made to continue
17808-414: The most prominent architects of America's early Cold War strategy, especially those who believed that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means, such as George F. Kennan. Soviet and Eastern Bloc authorities used various methods to suppress Western broadcasts, including radio jamming . American policymakers, including Kennan and John Foster Dulles , acknowledged that
17967-467: The move was demonstrated on flat tracks, which nullified the better stabilization systems of the Leopard 2AV. Germany later withdrew its tank from consideration. The decision to put the Leopard 2 tank in production for the German army was made after a study was undertaken , which showed that adopting the Leopard 2 model would result in a greater combat potential of the German army than producing more Leopard 1A4 tanks or developing an improved version of
18126-410: The new thermal night-sight system, which was later retrofitted to the earlier models. After the original five batches, three further batches of Leopard 2 tanks were ordered, increasing the number of Leopard 2 tanks ordered by Germany to a total of 2125. The sixth batch was ordered in June 1987 and consisted of 150 tanks, which were produced between January 1988 and May 1989. The seventh batch of 100 tanks
18285-497: The newly established brigade in Northern Norway. The brigade was formally declared operational on September 1, 1953. As a result of the parlaments's introduction of a new army system in 1953, the standing brigades were to be made up of conscripted soldiers in their initial service. Unlike the German Brigade, the young men now served one year in their respective detachments. The brigade in Northern Norway had two main functions: As
18444-665: The next contigent carried on with the service. The brigade, under the command of the Norwegian Army Command Germany ( Tysklandskommandoen ), was stationed in Schleswig-Holstein . In total, twelve contigents served in Germany between January 1947 and April 1953. The Military Committee and the Norwegian Parliament made many changes to the structure and organization of the army in the 1950s. The allied military advisors had recommended that Norway should organize
18603-550: The original mobility of the Leopard 2, was planned. The optics of the tank will also be improved. In April 2015, Welt am Sonntag claimed that tungsten (wolfram) rounds used in Leopard 2 cannot penetrate the Russian T-90 or the modernized version of the T-80 . They also stated that the German military will develop a new improved round, but it will be exclusively developed for the Leopard 2A7. In 2015 Rheinmetall disclosed that it
18762-426: The other prototypes. Ten of the turrets were equipped with 105 mm (4.1 in) smoothbore guns and the other seven prototypes were equipped with a 120 mm (4.7 in) smoothbore gun. Hulls PT11 and PT17 were fitted with a hydropneumatic suspension based on the MBT-70 design. The running gears of these two hulls had only six road wheels. Different types of auxiliary power units (APUs) were mounted in
18921-661: The policy change. Once again, the East Berlin communists attempted to disrupt the Berlin municipal elections , which were held on 5 December 1948 and produced a turnout of 86% and an overwhelming victory for the non-communist parties. The results effectively divided the city into East and West, the latter comprising US, British and French sectors. 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue, and US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen created " Operation Vittles ", which supplied candy to German children. The Airlift
19080-441: The political decision-making level on either side. Similarly, there is no evidence, on either side, of any major political or military decision that was prematurely discovered through espionage and thwarted by the other side. There also is no evidence of any major political or military decision that was crucially influenced (much less generated) by an agent of the other side. According to historian Robert L. Benson, "Washington's forte
19239-475: The post-war period. Two of the proposed three division commands were approved. Already in the autumn of 1952, 1st Division Command was operational. The 6th Division Command was organized by the Norwegian Army Command Germany , and the Independent Norwegian Brigade was converted into a combat formation called Brigaden i Nord-Norge . There were many logistical challenges in the process of moving
19398-474: The presence of the Red Army —alarmed the US and UK. Western leaders saw this as a clear instance of Soviet expansionism, clashing with their vision of a democratic Europe. Economically, the divide was sharpened with the introduction of the Marshall Plan in 1947, a US initiative to provide financial aid to rebuild Europe and prevent the spread of communism by stabilizing capitalist economies. The Soviet Union rejected
19557-449: The prototypes. All turrets were equipped with a machine gun for air defence, except the turret mounted on PT11, where a 20 mm (0.79 in) remotely operated autocannon was mounted. With the exception of hulls PT07, PT09, PT15, and PT17, all prototypes used the MB 873 engine. The road wheels were taken from the MBT-70 and the return rollers from the Leopard 1. The prototypes were designed with
19716-440: The rear of the tank protect against heavy machine guns, medium caliber rounds, and older types of tank ammunition. The side of the hull is covered by armour skirts to increase protection against projectiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) . The frontal third of the hull sides is covered by heavy ballistic skirts, while the rest of the hull sides is covered by steel-reinforced rubber skirts. For increased protection against mines,
19875-453: The same year, the US and USSR signed a series of arms control treaties limiting their nuclear arsenals, which eased tensions in a détente . In 1979, the toppling of pro-US governments in Iran and Nicaragua and a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan again raised fears of war. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev rose to leader of the USSR and expanded political freedoms in his country, which led to the fall of
20034-419: The sides of the hull floor are sloped by 45° and the floor is reinforced with corrugations. The Leopard 2's design follows the concept of compartmentation. Possible sources of fire or explosions have been moved away from the crew. In the turret, the ammunition and the hydraulics are located in compartments separated from the crew. In case of a detonation, the blow-off panels on the compartment roofs will direct
20193-462: The source of the term, Lippmann traced it to a French term from the 1930s, la guerre froide . The roots of the Cold War can be traced back to diplomatic and military tensions preceding World War II. The 1917 Russian Revolution and the subsequent Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , where Soviet Russia ceded vast territories to Germany, deepened distrust among the Western Allies. Allied intervention in
20352-485: The special and demanding conditions in Northern Norway. In 1995, the 42-year-old brigade was disbanded in favor of a new defense arrangement. The motivation behind this change was the 1992 Defense Study, which concluded that a strong invasion defense in Troms was still necessary, but the operation needed to be more cost-effective than before. From August 1996, the Brigade in Northern Norway ceased to be an operational brigade, and
20511-463: The specific post-war geopolitical confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States came in a speech by Bernard Baruch , an influential advisor to Democratic presidents, on 16 April 1947. The speech, written by journalist Herbert Bayard Swope , proclaimed, "Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war." Newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann gave the term wide currency with his book The Cold War . When asked in 1947 about
20670-536: The start of the MBT-70 development in cooperation with the United States beginning in 1963. However already in 1967 it became questionable whether the MBT-70 would enter service at any time in the foreseeable future. Therefore, the West German government issued the order to research future upgrade options for the Leopard 1 to the German company Porsche in 1967. This study was named vergoldeter Leopard ( Gilded Leopard ) and focused on incorporating advanced technology into
20829-445: The tank's surface was covered by special armour (composite armour arrays) than on the Leopard 2AV. Differences in armour protection were attributed to the different perceptions of the expected threats and the haste in which the Leopard 2AV was designed to accommodate special armour. On mobility trials the Leopard 2AV performed equal to better than the XM1 prototypes. The AGT-1500 turbine engine proved to consume about 50% more fuel and
20988-615: The two contenders for the order. However the current quantity of tanks in the Norwegian Army is insufficient for four tank squadrons and the Chief of the Army Major-General Lars Lervik has stated a requirement for at least 72 new tanks with a preference for 84 units. Despite the fact that the brigade was first established in 2002, it is a continuation of older decommissioned combat formation. The brigade traces its history back to
21147-419: The two projected testbeds was not possible, a total of 30 to 32 million DM was invested. The experimental development was contracted to the company Krauss-Maffei, but with the obligation to cooperate with Porsche for the development of the chassis and with Wegmann for the development of the turret. Two prototypes with different components were built with the aim of improving the conception of Leopard 1 in such
21306-466: The war, the USSR installed satellite governments in the territories of Eastern and Central Europe it had occupied, and promoted the spread of communism to North Korea in 1948 and created an alliance with the People's Republic of China in 1949. The US declared the Truman Doctrine of " containment " in 1947 as communist-led uprisings led to the Greek Civil War and First Indochina War , launched
21465-473: The world. Movements against nuclear weapons testing and for nuclear disarmament took place, with large anti-war protests . By the 1970s, both sides had started making allowances for peace and security, ushering in a period of détente that saw the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China that opened relations with China as a strategic counterweight to
21624-497: Was 'signals' intelligence - the procurement and analysis of coded foreign messages." leading to the Venona project or Venona intercepts, which monitored the communications of Soviet intelligence agents. Moynihan wrote that the Venona project contained "overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds." The Venona project
21783-412: Was a strong promise that West Germany would not develop nuclear weapons. Widespread fears of another rise of German militarism necessitated the new military to operate within an alliance framework under NATO command. In 1955, Washington secured full German membership of NATO. In May 1953, Lavrentiy Beria , by then in a government post, had made an unsuccessful proposal to allow the reunification of
21942-547: Was also fearful of a reconstituted Germany; his vision of a post-war Germany did not include the ability to rearm or pose any kind of threat to the Soviet Union. In early 1948, following reports of strengthening "reactionary elements", Czech Communists executed a coup d'état in Czechoslovakia (resulting in the formation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (9 May 1948)), the only Eastern Bloc state that
22101-433: Was as much a logistical as a political and psychological success for the West; it firmly linked West Berlin to the United States. In May 1949, Stalin backed down and lifted the blockade. In 1952, Stalin repeatedly proposed a plan to unify East and West Germany under a single government chosen in elections supervised by the United Nations, if the new Germany were to stay out of Western military alliances, but this proposal
22260-524: Was chosen over the passive EMES-13 rangefinder. The EMES-13 system was considered to be the superior solution, but the Hughes system was cheaper and fully developed. The German company Krupp-Atlas-Elektronik acquired the licence of the Hughes design and modified it to meet the needs of the German army. The modified rangefinder received the designation EMES-15. The installation of the US AGT-1500 turbine engine in
22419-648: Was contingent upon German economic recovery. One month later, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 , creating a unified Department of Defense , the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council (NSC). These would become the main bureaucracies for US defense policy in the Cold War. Stalin believed economic integration with the West would allow Eastern Bloc countries to escape Soviet control, and that
22578-420: Was defined as the defensive center of gravity for the territorial defense. Here, the brigade was to ensure that the opponent would be stopped and hold out until allied reinforcements could arrive. For a long time, defense planning was based on the assumption that the region of Finnmark could not be held, and that Norway had to be prepared for invasion from the east, both into Finnmark and through Finland. Parts of
22737-507: Was demanded in late 1973 and the Spitzmaus-Turm was never produced. The weight limit was increased from MLC50 to MLC60, which equals approximately 55 tonnes (54 long tons; 61 short tons). The T14 turret was modified to test a new armour configuration, taking on a blockier-looking appearance as a result of using vertical modules of spaced multilayer armour . It was also used to test the new EMES-13 optical rangefinder. The modified T14 turret
22896-454: Was designated T14 mod . and was fitted with a fully electric turret drive and stabilization system, which was developed jointly by General Electric and AEG Telefunken . In July 1973 German Federal Minister of Defence Georg Leber and his US counterpart James R. Schlesinger agreed upon a higher degree of standardisation in main battle tanks being favourable to NATO. By integrating components already fully developed by German companies for
23055-460: Was developing a new 130 mm (5.1 in) smoothbore gun for the Leopard 2 tank and its successor. This gun will offer a 50% increase in performance and penetration. Marketing for the new gun was slated to begin in 2016. The Leopard 2 first entered service in 1979, and its service life is anticipated to end around 2030. In May 2015, the German Ministry of Defence announced plans to develop
23214-497: Was improved and weak spots were eliminated. The turret bustle containing the ready ammunition racks and the hydraulic system was separated from the crew compartment and fitted with blowout panels. The development of several new components was introduced to the Leopard 2 during the Leopard 2AV development and after the US testing was completed. For the series version, the Hughes-designed laser rangefinder made with US Common Modules
23373-463: Was kept highly secret even from policymakers until the Moynihan Commission in 1995. Despite this, the decryption project had already been betrayed and dispatched to the USSR by Kim Philby and Bill Weisband in 1946, as was discovered by the US by 1950. Nonetheless, the Soviets had to keep their discovery of the program secret, too, and continued leaking their own information, some of which
23532-502: Was left as the world's sole superpower. In February 1946, George F. Kennan 's " Long Telegram " from Moscow to Washington helped to articulate the US government's increasingly hard line against the Soviets, which would become the basis for US strategy toward the Soviet Union for the duration of the Cold War. The telegram galvanized a policy debate that would eventually shape the Truman administration 's Soviet policy. Washington's opposition to
23691-513: Was nicknamed the Spitzmaus-Turm (shrew turret) due to the highly sloped front. This design was only possible with the new EMES-13 optical rangefinder, which required a base length of only 350 millimetres (14 in) instead of the previous 1,720 millimetres (68 in). Based on experiences in the Yom Kippur War , a higher level of protection than the prototypes' heavily sloped spaced armour
23850-540: Was now restricted to the island of Taiwan , the nationalist government of which exists to this day. The Kremlin promptly created an alliance with the newly formed People's Republic of China. According to Norwegian historian Odd Arne Westad , the communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang Kai-Shek made, and because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Moreover, his party
24009-403: Was parity in the quantity and quality of secret information obtained by each side. However, the Soviets probably had an advantage in terms of HUMINT (human intelligence or interpersonal espionage) and "sometimes in its reach into high policy circles." In terms of decisive impact, however, he concludes: We also can now have high confidence in the judgment that there were no successful "moles" at
24168-431: Was produced between May 1988 and April 1990. The last batch for the German army totalling 75 tanks was produced from January 1991 to March 1992. During its production run during the Cold War, 16 Leopard 2 tanks were being produced per month. The vehicles were produced at a slower rate in the following decades, however KMW still retained the capacity to return to such manufacturing levels should they need to be made again at
24327-494: Was projected. It was never finalised, but the 140 mm (5.5 in) NPzK tank gun was tested on an older prototype. In 1995, it was decided to cancel due to changes in the political environment. The funds were redirected to the Neue Gepanzerte Plattformen (New Armoured Platforms) project of the German army. The Leopard 2A6M was developed with a kit providing enhanced protection against mines that can detonate below
24486-494: Was scheduled for 1979, 114 for 1980, 180 for 1981, and 300 tanks each following year. The first series-production tank was delivered on 25 October 1979. By 1982, all of the first batch of 380 Leopard 2 tanks had been completed. 209 were built by Krauss-Maffei (chassis no. 10001 to 10210) and 171 by MaK (chassis no. 20001 to 20172). The first production tanks were fitted with the PzB-200 image intensifier due to production shortages of
24645-486: Was still useful to the American program. According to Moynihan, even President Truman may not have been fully informed of Venona, which may have left him unaware of the extent of Soviet espionage. Clandestine atomic spies from the Soviet Union, who infiltrated the Manhattan Project at various points during WWII, played a major role in increasing tensions that led to the Cold War. In addition to usual espionage,
24804-565: Was the Korean War of 1950 to 1953, which ended in stalemate. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 installed the first communist regime in the Western Hemisphere, and in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began after deployments of U.S. missiles in Europe and Soviet missiles in Cuba; it is considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war . Another major proxy conflict was the Vietnam War of 1955 to 1975, which ended in defeat for
24963-625: Was turned down by the Western powers. Some sources dispute the sincerity of the proposal. Britain, France, the United States, Canada and eight other western European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty of April 1949, establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That August, the first Soviet atomic device was detonated in Semipalatinsk , Kazakh SSR . Following Soviet refusals to participate in
25122-487: Was upgraded to Leopard 2A5 configuration between 1995 and 1998; a second batch of 125 followed from 1999 to 2002. The third stage was the planned replacement of the Leopard 2 turret by a new turret fitted with a 140 mm (5.5 in) NPzK tank gun, an autoloader, and the IFIS battlefield management system. The ballistic protection at the hull was to be improved. Originally a total requirement for 650 Leopard 2 tanks with KWS 3
25281-483: Was weakened during the war against Japan . Meanwhile, the communists told different groups, such as the peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear, and they cloaked themselves under the cover of Chinese nationalism . Confronted with the communist revolution in China and the end of the American atomic monopoly in 1949, the Truman administration quickly moved to escalate and expand its containment doctrine. In NSC 68 ,
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