The Panzer 2000 was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

tank planned to replace the

Panzer 68 The Panzer 68 was a Swiss main battle tank developed by the Eidgenoessische Konstruktionswerkstaette in Thun in the late 1960s, and was the main tank of the Swiss Army until the late 1990s. History The Panzer 68 was based on the Panzer 61, ...

, produced by

Eidgenoessische Konstruktionswerkstaette ''Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerkstätte'' English: "Federal Constructions Works", short K+W, was a Swiss state-owned enterprise, with the aim of making the Swiss military independent of foreign sources for its equipment needs. It was establishe ...

. It was intended for use by the

Swiss Armed Forces The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, re ...

Description

The Panzer 2000 was based on the

, but was totally redesigned over the course of the project. In addition to a new engine from

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

, the

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

would have included fewer, larger wheels than the Panzer 68. The main armament was a 120mm smooth-bore gun. In addition to the usual armor of the time, the Panzer 2000 would have been equipped with bolted-on armor plates. The same system had already been tested on a Panzer 68 as a cost-effective protection against

hollow charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ini ...

projectiles. Further improvements included the addition of modern thermal sights and electronics, and a new turret with greatly improved

CBRN Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence (CBRN defence) are protective measures taken in situations in which chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear warfare (including terrorism) hazards may be present. CBRN defence consis ...

protection.

History

The Panzer 2000 was intended to replace and eliminate the Panzer 68's shortcomings. However, the volatile history of its predecessor was an obstacle to the Panzer 2000's production. The Swiss doubted that Switzerland would be able to produce a well-functioning tank without expensive rework, and political parties used this argument; given the more modern technology, per-unit costs were to be much higher than the Panzer 68. These high development costs, along with a lack of export orders, ultimately prevented production of the Panzer 2000. Instead, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Leopard 2 The Leopard 2 is a 3rd generation main battle tank originally developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s for the West German army. The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West Germ ...

was procured and introduced under the name Panzer 87. This procurement was quicker and cheaper than the Panzer 2000 program because of the Leopard's already high scale of production.

Versions

In addition to the basic version as a main battle tank for the Swiss Army, the Panzer 2000 would have been converted into variants such as recovery tanks,

combat engineering vehicle A military engineering vehicle is a vehicle built for construction work or for the transportation of combat engineering, combat engineers on the battlefield. These vehicles may be modified civilian equipment (such as the Armored bulldozer, armou ...

, driver trainers and the

armoured vehicle-launched bridge An armoured vehicle-launched bridge (AVLB) is a combat support vehicle, sometimes regarded as a subtype of military engineering vehicle, designed to assist militaries in rapidly deploying tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles across gap-t ...

. Also intended for export were variants as

self-propelled artillery Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mo ...

, anti-aircraft tanks, and ammunition tugs.

References

*K + W (Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerkstätten) - Thun (Swiss design workshops) - Thun * Book Urs Heller: ''Die Panzer der schweizer Armee von 1920 bis 2008'

* The Swiss Military Museum, Full, Switzerlan

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703005402/http://festungsmuseum.ch/englisch/ , date=2020-07-03 Tanks of Switzerland Tanks of the Cold War