Tank origin

As successful as the Leopard 2 main battle tank was, a newly unified Germany still sought to upgrade its military defenses after the Cold War ended. The KWS project was an effort to update the Leopard 2 undertaken during the 1990s. The primary feature of the KWS III design, which was the third stage in the project, was a 140mm smoothbore gun that would have been paired with an autoloader to reduce the vehicle’s crew size. Changes in the political climate ultimately led to the termination of the project.