German arms giant Rheinmetall unveiled its new main battle tank at the major weapons exhibition in Paris on Monday. The vehicle comes under the ‘Panther’ nickname in an apparent nod to Nazi Germany’s iconic PzKpfw V medium tank.
The new tank boasts a new 130mm gun and is marketed as having “optimized sensor-to-shooter links,” heavily relying on digital systems to control the battlefield. While closely resembling the Leopard 2 family main battle tanks in its appearance, the Panther is a “radically new” tank “concept not constrained by yesterday’s technology,” Rheinmetall insists.
“It is the first main battle tank entirely developed by Rheinmetall,” the company’s CEO, Armin Papperger, said during the unveiling ceremony, insisting the machine would become a “game changer on the future battlefield.”