We are producing Lynxes, we are buying Leopards and we have joined the development of the Panther, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in response to a question on his TikTok channel, inquiring whether the Lynx or the Leopard will be the big cat of the Carpathians.
In his latest video on Tuesday evening, the premier added: “We will see which one is the winner. Studies suggest that it may be the Panther."
The PM’s video puts an end to a speculation that was sparked after the inauguration of the Rheinmetall plant last week in Zalaegerszeg. KF51 Panther, a main battle tank still under development, was on display in the inauguration ceremony of the German-Hungarian plant, the Facebook page of panczelosok.hu wrote in an exclusive report.
Rheinmetall Landsystem’s combat vehicle is still under development and not yet ready for mass production. However, some details have come to light since its introduction last year.
It is an even better digitized system than the Leopard 2 family. Some descriptions say that the crew members are positioned as if they were sitting in a spaceship. The Leopard's 120mm tank gun will be replaced by a new, larger 130mm gun. Because of the larger ammunition, especially in terms of length and weight, the manufacturer would switch to an autoloader system, as opposed to the manual systems widely used in NATO. This is not unfamiliar to Hungarian soldiers, as all Soviet-Russian tanks from the T-64 onwards, including the T-72s serving in the Hungarian army, are equipped with automatic armor-piercing guns.
Compared to the existing and yet-to-arrive Leopard 2 A4HU and A7HU, the automatic gun will significantly reduce the crew's workload, with some reports suggesting that a drone operator will be added to the crew in place of the loader.
According to other sources, the extra seat could be occupied by a squadron commander coordinating the maneuvers of the unit's other vehicles. Both these opinions seem to be supported by the fact that several spaces have been created on the streamlined turret to allow the installation of modular equipment. These include a container with four launchers for reconnaissance and attack drones, so-called loitering munitions, which significantly enhance the tank's reconnaissance and attack capabilities.
In close cooperation with the Hungarian government and Hungarian companies, Rheinmetall is producing the Lynx infantry fighting vehicle, the world's newest and most modern such vehicle, at its Zalaegerszeg plant. An ammunition and explosives factory is also under construction with a planned area of several square kilometers at Varpalota; a software development center is already in operation in Budapest; and components for hydrogen and electric drive trains are being produced in Szeged. In the most recent cooperation, Rheinmetall and Israel's UVision will also produce their loitering munitions (suicide drones) in Hungary for delivery to the Hungarian armed forces.
As for the KF51 Panther, just before PM Orban’s TikTok video, Rheinmetall announced that global supply chains would be used to develop the fighting vehicle, and that production would include countries planning to become operators of the tank. There is another tank development currently underway in Europe, the EMBT. Leopard producer Krauss-Maffei Wegman, together with French manufacturer Nexter, are attempting to combine the German vehicle’s chassis with the Leclerc tank's autoloader-equipped gun turret through the KNDS military-industrial alliance.
Cover photo: Panther combat vehicle at the inauguration of the Zalaegerszeg plant (Source: Facebook/panczelosok.hu)
