Most sources indicate that MTU's MB 873 (leopard 1 A1 A2 A3) and MT 883 (europack) has a power of between 1500 hp and 1650 hp. But MTU website indicate that both diesel engine could generate 1800hp.
What cause the discrepancy? Is it because of the transmission? Meaning the 1800hp figure is before coupling to the Renk Tramission?
LV50-2 is is the gas turbine that is develop for FCS. Its power density kw/weight ratio is 1.462kw/kg to 1.9 kw/kg, much higher than the AGT1500 0.98kw/kg.
LV50-2 is derived from LV100-5 (develop for potential re-engine program for M1A2 and M1A1), BUT LV50-2 has a much higher power to weight ratio, LV100-5 power to weight ratio is ONLY 1.07kw/kg (abit higher than AGT1500 but far below LV50-2)
If LV100-5 only has a power to weight ratio of 1.07kw/kg (1118.5kw/1045.5kg), then the US Army might as well use the High Power Density MT 890 series diesel from MTU.
MT 890 series has an AWESOME power to weight ratio of between 1.064kw/kg to 1.235 kw/kg. For a diesel engine, that is very high. Such figure is more impressive than the LV100-5 1.07kw/kg performance.
Moreover, diesel is generally more fuel efficient. It is likely that MT 893 12V engine is slightly more efficient and sligtly more compact and lighter than LV-100-5 gas turbine.
All leopard2, Leclerc, Challenger and M1 could potentially be upgraded by using the 12v or 16v version of the MT 890 series engine (developing between 1500 to 2000hp). The 12v version is ONLY 50% the weight and size of the already compact Europack Mt 883.
The Mt890 would either enable current tank to carry more fuel due to its super compact size (half the size of europack) or enable a tank to carry an engine with almost the same size as current engine but developing 2000 hp to 3000 hp (just use the 16v or a hypothetically scale up 20V to 24V engine).