The German Army orders 18 new Leopard 2 tanks to replace the tanks sent to Ukraine
A company specializing in defense industries reported on Friday, that the German army has ordered 18 new Leopard 2 tanks to replace the tanks sent to Ukraine earlier this year.
Munich based, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann Company said that a contract for the “Leopard 2A8” tanks signed with the Federal Office for Military Equipment of the German Ministry of Defense.
The company didn’t give financial details, but the German parliament’s budget committee on Wednesday approved financing of about 525 million Euros ($563 million).
The deliveries of the new tanks are scheduled to begin in 2025, and that the deal includes options for another 105 Leopard 2A8 tanks, and it would also produce 12 self-propelled howitzers for the German army as part of an option agreed upon last March.
The German Minister of Defense had called for obtaining new tanks as soon as possible after the government agreed in late January to provide 14 Leopard 2A6 combat tanks to Ukraine.
A few weeks later, that number was increased to 18 as Berlin and other countries scrambled to assemble two battalions of Leopard II tanks in Kiev.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands have also agreed to supply Ukraine with refurbished Leopard 1 tanks, an old model not used by the German army for two decades.
