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Defense Contract
Porsche was contracted to make a 30 hp/ton MBT that could go penetrate 150mm angled armor -
Italy, Germany and France conduct a co-op
Italy, Germany and France all join in to help develop an MBT for Europe as a whole, later after the Leopard is actually developed, France creates the AMX-30 and Italy develops the OF-40 -
First modeling
First wooden mock up of the Leopard 1 is produced, modeling how they will manufacture the tank for the outside hull -
First Prototype
Prototype is built, with hull and turret, but with no real crew space or gun built in, but does have engine inside -
Trials
Trials on the tank began and they started to fix engine, transmission and mobility issues -
Firepower Choice
They chose to import the L7A3 royal cannon from the British due to needing an upgrade in firepower because the 90mm was becoming out of date for armor penetration -
Engine Deck
The engine deck was widened and raised to fit the new Mercedes-Benz MB 838 ten-cylinder, which was a multi fuel engine that had an estimated 830 HP, due to this retrofit, the total weight came out to 36.2 tons and the internal layout for the transmission and driver seat was changed -
Weapon Order
Late in 1962, 1500 L7A3 royal ordnance cannons were ordered by the German army in order to outfit the Leopard 1 when it came out of prototype phase and filled production lines -
French Tests
In 1963, the French got a hold of 50 Leopard 1's for tests to see if they would like to use them in production and with the AMX-30 they were already developing, the test was supervised by Italy, the Germans had an advantaged over the French MBT. -
End of the Joint Agreement
Due to the new French defense policy, they were not allowed to buy any type of foreign tank before 1965, ending the joint tank program with the French and Germans, denying the production of the Leopard for the French -
Naming
The tank was named the Leopard, due to war time tanks being named after felines and big cats, an appropriate name -
Trials
Unit trials started to come to an end, making the Leopard set in stone as Germany's new MBT coming into service for many years, with many upgrades, retrofits and variants throughout the years -
Acceptance/Production
The leopard was accepted into full scale production just right after the German military accepted it into service as the new MBT of Germany -
Modernization
Almost 5 years after, the tank began to get modernized for the time, with a full 2 plane stabilizer, side skirts, a laser range finder, better engine, added spaced armor on the turret and thermal sleeve to the main gun, it was designated as the Leopard 1A1. -
Next Generation of the Leopard
The leopard 2 began production in 1970, making to replace the Leopard 1's that were in German hands, paving the way for the next generation of MBT's, the leopard had licence production all over the world and making it one of the most used tanks in the world.