Tanks of the Troya Company of the Spanish contingent in Latvia in action

The Leopardos 2E of the Spanish Army show us their high-explosive shells

The Leopardo 2E main battle tank, the Spanish version of the German Leopard 2A6, is the spearhead of the armored forces of the Spanish Army.

This is the inside of the turret of a Leopard 2A4 tank during a shooting session
Soldiers from Spain and Latvia train to fight in a wooded and snowy environment

Spain currently has several of these tanks deployed in Latvia, part of NATO's eFP Battle Group Latvia, a unit made up of soldiers from Albania, Canada, Slovenia, Spain, Italy and Poland. Today, the bulk of the Spanish contingent belongs to the XII Guardarrama Brigade, based in El Goloso, Madrid.

On February 21, the Spanish Leopardos 2E of the Troya Company received their tactical shooting certification, as part of their preparation for training or operations. This afternoon, eFP Battle Group Latvia posted a series of four photos that shows the certification process, with images of the Spanish Leopardos 2E in the snowy terrain of the maneuvering area of the Latvian base of Camp Adazi. You can see those photos next to these lines.

In several photos we see one of the Leopardos 2E with a small red flag. It is the visual signal used in NATO exercises to indicate that a tank is ready to open fire. Note that the 120mm gun on these tanks generates a powerful pressure wave with each shot, which can cause hearing damage to anyone nearby.

This photo (you can see it enlarged by clicking on the image) I found especially interesting. In it we see the crew of a Leopardo 2E unpacking 120x570 mm M-95 HE-T (high explosive) shells. As the boxes shown in the image indicate, each shell has a weight of 35 kg. According to General Dynamics, HE-T warheads are mainly used in infantry support tasks, and their purpose is to destroy bunkers, fortifications, light armor and personnel.

Here we can see the Leopardo 2E opening fire. As you can see by clicking on the image to enlarge it, this vehicle has a white camouflage net, for winter environments, folded behind the commander's and loader's hatches. Spanish vehicles are using these winter camouflage nets in Latvia, as shown by another series of photos posted by eFP Battle Group Latvia two weeks ago.

In those photos we can see an M-113 VCZ sapper combat vehicle covered with one of those nets during the Wolverine Forge exercise. Below these lines, we can see a JCB JS 200NLC excavator from Spanish engineers, also with winter camouflage nets. Interestingly, on the arm of the backhoe he has written the name "Fury", like the famous Sherman tank from the 2014 movie.

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