Overview

During the Leopard 1's long production run, West German planners decided it would be best if factories that did not have advanced casting facilities could participate in production of the tank. From this imperative, the welded-turret Leopard 1A3 was born. After several rounds of upgrades, a new standard arrived in the form of the Leopard 1A4. Both versions are featured in GHPC's depiction of the mid-'80s Bundeswehr forces, with the Leopard 1A4 in particular representing the most advanced Leopard 1 variant in the game.

Variants

The Leopard 1A4 was only made in one major configuration and as such does not have multiple variants in the game. By contrast the Leopard 1A3 has a very similar variant set to the Leopard 1A1. This chart illustrates the main changes:

(Note: an asterisk * means a change that isn't strictly associated with the variant but is depicted in the game because it arrived as a new standard at around the same time.)

Armor protection

Despite the difference in turret construction, these tanks are in most respects identical in protection to the Leopard 1A1 family. For more information, see the associated article.

Gunnery systems (Leopard 1A3)

The Leopard 1A3's optics and fire control systems are identical to those found on the Leopard 1A1 family. For detailed information, see the Leopard 1A1 guide.

Enhanced gunsight (Leopard 1A4 only)

The Leopard 1A4 brought with it a notable improvement to the gunner's sight: the introduction of a variable zoom level. Long-range shooting should be considerably more comfortable with this tank compared to the Leopard 1A1 or 1A3. The range scale on the right side also lights up red to indicate when the gun is ready to fire.

Commander's night sight (Leopard 1A4 only)

The primary night optic for the Leopard 1A4 is the night channel of the commander's independent panoramic sight, mounted atop the turret. As of the Leopard 1A4's introduction in GHPC, the crew stations feature is not yet implemented, so there is normally no way to use this optic. However, when attempting to use night vision in the gunner's sight, the game will switch you to the commander's night sight instead.

The ring around the night sight's perimeter is an indicator of where the sight is pointed relative to the turret. As of the tank's introduction in the game, the sight cannot be swiveled, so this will always read "12 o'clock".

Dynamic lead (Leopard 1A4 only)

By far the most significant leap in capability in the Leopard 1A4 is the introduction of the dynamic lead system. Much like the newer main battle tanks in GHPC, the Leopard 1A4 has the ability to measure the gunner's control inputs and calculate how far "ahead" a shot must be aimed to hit a moving target at the currently set range. Unlike any other tank in the game, the Leopard 1A4 accomplishes this with no laser rangefinder, using instead the range manually set in the fire control system. This means the gunner must be absolutely certain that the current range is up to date in order to achieve an accurate solution, using the stereoscopic rangefinder or map reference points as needed.

Engaging the dynamic lead system is accomplished with its own separate control. In GHPC, there are two ways to do this: by holding the rangefinder button (default: E) or holding the alternative lead button (default: Caps Lock). This is the same control scheme used to activate dynamic lead for the Leopard 2.

When dynamic lead is activated, the reticle moves once based on the gunner's recent inputs, similarly to how the lead system works in the M60A3 tank. If the gunner's track on target was good during the preceding 1 second or so, this lateral correction should result in a hit. If there was deviation or the gunner was "walking" the reticle across the target before engaging lead, the solution will not be correct, and the shot will miss. Mastery of the art of target tracking is mandatory if you wish to get consistent results in the Leopard 1A4 or any other tank with dynamic lead.