After Action Report<div>Leopard 2A6 </div><div>
Field Test 004 - 4/1/2012 </div><div>Slickrock Hill Climbing</div><div></div><div>Background Information:</div><div></div><div>
Test Location, N 38d 25’16” W 108d 49’42” West End Desert Proving Ground</div><div>Montrose County, Colorado, USA</div><div></div><div>
Slickrock, the local name for bedrock exposures of Tertiary and Cretaceous sandstones eroded into dome and shelf like structures. The name was given by early pioneers who found the bare rock offered little or no traction for their iron shod ponies and iron rimed wagon wheels. Modern rubber tires ( and track pads ) have very good traction on “ Slick rock “ and thus the very term Slickrock now has a certain irony to it.</div><div></div><div>
Weather, high winds at the test sight precluded topping out on the hill climbing portion of the test. The engineering team determined that wind speeds of over 25mph ( scale speed approximately 400mph ) could roll or flip the tank when the pressure wave was directed under the tank bottom while cresting the slope. Due to these weather constraints, crew and vehicle safety was an issue so only limited testing was possible. </div><div></div><div>
Test Data, slope angles of 30 degrees presented no traction problems for the Leopard 2A6 on both hill climbing and side-hilling exercises. Above 30 degrees of slope, only front on hill climbing, or “Highmarking” was attempted. Angles of up to 40 degrees were achieved with this method however holding position on the slope was difficult. It was found that the motor power required to climb the slope, and the motor power required to hold position on the slope without rolling back, became equal at approximately 40 degrees of slope. At angles above 40 degrees any throttle setting other than full resulted in motor stall and the tank rolling back down slope uncontrolled until applying maximum forward throttle would again allow engine breaking to be effective. The rapid deceleration this caused was often quite unpleasant for both the tank crew and the test director. Reversing back down slope under control was only possible by slowly changing the forward throttle from full to neutral. </div><div>No track slippage was noted at the rubber pad / rock interface even at maximum achieved slope angles. </div><div>No track related problems occurred. </div><div>All testing was done using the standard power setting on the DMD unit.</div><div></div><div>
Conclusions, insufficient data was collected from this test session to draw any dependable conclusions. More testing will be necessary at a future date.</div><div></div><div>Link to
TOP SECRET film of Test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srWeMuMBoDA</div><div></div>