Ukrainian Leopard tanks received modern DM53 armor-piercing rounds

7 June, 2023 Leopard 2A6 tank on a firing position. Photo from open sources Germany transferred modern DM53?1 armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds along with Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

The news was announced by the NMFTE Telegram channel. Ukrainian Leopard 2 tank operators received one of the most powerful DM53?1 armor-piercing rounds of the German military manufactured by Rheinmetall. In the video, the soldier demonstrates a tank round unpacked from shipping containers with inscriptions, presumably during their loading into the ammunition stowage rack of a combat vehicle.

DM53

DM53 is a German armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) developed in 1999 by Rheinmetall. This projectile is capable of striking all the most modern armored targets.

During the development, the designers specifically adapted munition to modern combat reactive protection, including the 4S22 Kontakt-5, which now equips most Russian tanks.

German DM53 APFSDS

The projectile is designed specifically to achieve maximum efficiency when firing with an elongated L55 tank gun, which arms Leopard 2A6 tanks. When fired from this gun, DM53 is able to reach a speed of 1750 meters per second and penetrate up to 750 mm of homogeneous armored steel at a distance of 2000 meters.

The modernized DM53?1 ammunition differs from the original by the use of a new SCDB propellant, the combustion characteristics of which do not depend on atmospheric temperature. This provides unchanged ballistic performance over a wide temperature range. The DM53?1 penetrator is made of WSM IV tungsten alloy.

Its weight is only 5 kilograms, the length is 685 mm, and the diameter is 26 mm.

Application of DM53 in Ukraine

At the end of May, the Ukrainian military tested Leopard 2?6 tanks at one of the ranges by firing at captured Russian ?-62? tanks. In the released footage, the military demonstrated the results of the shelling of the target and the area of penetrated ?-62? armor.

A Russian T-62M tank at the training ground. May 2023.

Photo credits: @andreynikonorov8

With great probability, the Ukrainian military were using the DM53 120mm APFSDS rounds transferred by Germany, which are the basic ammunition of Leopard 2?6 tanks.