In the late 1980s, German factories were completing the Leopard 2 A4 main battle tanks ordered by the Bundeswehr, but practical Germans were already thinking about the further development of tank technology, the need for tanks in the future and their intended appearance. Several possible options were considered, both revolutionary and evolutionary in nature. One of the projects of German designers involved the development of a completely new combat vehicle at that time, and others - the modernization of existing Leopard 2 tanks by improving their design and using more modern components and systems.
The green light was given to work in different directions of the development of the main battle tank, but it was the revolutionary project that was of greatest interest, which involved the creation of a new combat vehicle with a crew of only two people. In a sense, the designers tried to transfer the idea of attack aircraft to ground vehicles. Very often, the crews of combat aircraft consist of just two people - the pilot and the weapons operator. In the tank, the German designers expected to maintain the same distribution of roles - the driver-mechanic and the "weapons operator". At the same time, both crew members should have received a sufficient set of instruments for observing the terrain and controls, so that, if necessary, it is easy to duplicate each other's functions.
Reducing the tank's crew from four to two people should have significantly reduced the booked volume, which means the dimensions and weight of the combat vehicle. Another idea was the use of two successive crews of two. As conceived by the designers, this would lead to an increase in the time of direct use of the tank, since one crew could rest while the other was engaged in the operation of military equipment. Finally, the loss of a vehicle in battle would mean the loss of not four trained tankers, but only two people.
To create a new combat vehicle, the crew of which would consist of only two people, it was necessary to create new ways of controlling various functions. The loader in the tank could be relatively easily replaced with an automatic loader. But to combine the functions of a tank commander, driver and gunner was already quite a difficult task. In fact, the tank's crew was supposed to consist of two commanders, who themselves had to determine who would perform what functions at a particular point in time.
The project of a new tank with a crew of two was named VT-2000 (Versuchstrager - experimental chassis, Kampfpanzer Versuchsträger 2000). It was decided to use the chassis and hull from the MBT Leopard 2 as a platform for the new tank. And in place of the turret, German designers installed an experimental fighting compartment - a KSC container (Kampf system container). In the new fighting compartment, there were places for two people, various sights and observation devices were installed. Both crew members of the experimental tank had the same controls both for controlling the combat vehicle and for controlling observation devices and sights. Since the tank was experimental, no weapons were installed on it. At the same time, the mechanic drive's workplace was retained in the building, but only for its use by the engineer, who oversees the implementation of the entire experiment. All controls in the driver's seat in the tank hull were blocked.
At each workplace of the crew members of the Kampfpanzer Versuchsträger 2000 experimental tank, monitors were placed to display information from day and night observation devices, as well as steering wheels, levers, handles and pedals for controlling the tank and joysticks for controlling sights. To move the tank in reverse, one of the workplaces also received additional control drives, and a crew member of the combat vehicle had to turn his seat 180 degrees to move back. This was done for security reasons - the tank always had to move in the direction where the mechanic was looking. A large mast with numerous sensors of various devices was placed in the aft part of the container fighting compartment. It was on it that independent (for tank crew members) sighting systems were installed, each of them had its own laser rangefinder and day and night channels. The sights for each of the two crew members of the experimental tank could rotate vertically and horizontally independently of each other. Three observation cameras for the terrain, which would be used by the mechanic, were installed between the sighting complexes. For its time, this tank was distinguished by the presence of the most perfect and most modern navigation equipment and various systems for alerting the crew about the tactical situation.
At the same time, the entire system as a whole was quite "raw". The Germans did not test a prototype, but only a run-in of the idea, the concept of the future tank. It was a real experiment. It is no coincidence that pneumatics were even used to drive the optoelectronic modules installed on the tank. Two cylinders filled with compressed air were located behind the experimental fighting compartment and provided a supply sufficient for various tests of the machine.
After a series of tests, work on the creation of the German experimental tank VT-2000 was stopped. The experiment carried out clearly showed that the concept of such a tank could be used in the future and, in principle, a crew of only two people could control the tank and perform the combat missions assigned to them. However, in the current realities, it was extremely difficult to achieve this. The combination of a number of functions and their delegation to each of the crew members of the experimental combat vehicle did not give the desired result. It was quite difficult, relying on the existing technical level, to control the movements of the tank and at the same time monitor the battlefield and perform combat missions. In practice, it turned out that almost always one crew member was focused on controlling the tank, and the second was watching the battlefield, looking for targets. In this regard, there was simply no time left for commanding the tank, as well as establishing interaction with other combat vehicles of the unit, adjacent units and the higher command.
To solve all these problems and make the concept of a tank with a crew of two people feasible in practice, it was necessary to automate as much as possible the processes of reconnaissance, identification and tracking of detected targets, as well as driving control of the tank. But such technologies simply did not exist in those years. All this, combined with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, "nullified" many military projects of those years, including the reason for the refusal to further work on the project of the experimental tank Kampfpanzer Versuchsträger 2000. Despite this, a number of systems, to which, for example, included surveillance systems, were used by the military for other developments of military equipment.
The Germans themselves eventually chose the evolutionary path of development, which led to the appearance of tanks of the Leopard 2 A5 and Leopard 2 A6 modifications. These projects were less ambitious, but did not require significant time and money. As part of improving the combat effectiveness of the Leopard 2 main battle tank, two projects were developed: KWS I, which provided for an increase in firepower without increasing the caliber of the gun and KWS II, which provided for an increase in the protection of MBT. Work on the first project involved the creation of a modernized 120-mm tank gun with a barrel length of 55 calibers (Rh 120 L / 55) and a new armor-piercing 120-mm tank shell. The implementation of this project led to the creation of an experimental SVT tank. The resulting tests later formed the basis of the Leopard 2 A6 modification tank. As part of the implementation of the second project, additional booking elements were created, they were used on an experimental tank "for testing components" KVT. The results of this experiment formed the basis for the modification of the Leopard 2 A5 tank.
It is worth noting that the Soviet Union also had its own project of creating a tank with a crew of two. In the early 1980s, the Kharkov Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau was working on a project for a main battle tank with a crew of two, it was planned to place them in the tower. To control the tank, it was planned to use a rather complex stereoscopic television system, which was located in the bow of the hull of the combat vehicle. Work on the creation of this tank was headed by E. A. Morozov, and the tank itself received the designation "Object 490". But due to significant technical difficulties, it never came to the release of the tank "in metal". The project was not implemented.
