'Loitering ammunitions' also gives this tank a Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) capability lacking in most modern combat tank designs through the HERO 120 loitering munitions system.Ī 12.7mm Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) is installed co-axially to the main gun as a light armor-defeating and anti-infantry / suppression measure. A programmable automatic loader mechanism ensures proper projectile selection / exchange and an elevated rate-of-fire with twenty ready-to-fire projectiles available from the 130mm stock.

Main armament is a 130mm /L52 smoothbore 'Future Gun System' (FGS) with enhanced capabilities over the West's standard 120mm types and is fully-aided by an all-modern digital Fire Control System (FCS) coupled to advanced sensors for quick response times and accurate on-target shooting even while on-the-move. The powerpack is installed at the rear of the hull and offers an operational range out to 500 kilometers. The upper reaches of the track link units are protected by side-skirt armor. The track-and-wheel arrangement includes seven rubber-tired roadwheels to a hull side with the drive sprocket at rear and the track idler at front. The turret is noticeably larger than contemporary designs, taking up nearly all of the hull's surface area from side-to-side and front-to-back. The 61-ton (short) vehicle is given a largely conventional arrangement with a low-profile hull driven by tracks and a 360-degree traversing turret seated above the hull roof line. The name 'Panther' is most likely derived from the original German Panther tank of World War 2 (1939-1945) detailed elsewhere on this site. The vehicle is ambitious to be sure and would take considerable convincing for global warplanners to accept an expensive 'do-everything' modern combat tank design in an age where such systems appear to be losing their inherent tactical battlefield value with each passing month due to the Ukrainian-Russian War of 2022. The vehicle was exhibited at Eurosatory 2022 promising a radical new approach to tank design bringing many established elements concerning protection, performance, and lethality into a single package. The KF51 'Panther' Main Battle Tank (MBT) is the Rheinmetall vision future armored warfare.

Russia map panther tank modern