Negotiations break down between the Franco-German Knds and Leonardo to create the new tank in consortium to be sold to the Italian Army to replace the tracked Dardo, a contract worth over 8 billion. The negotiations were supposed to formalize the alliance, as envisaged in a letter of intent signed by the two companies last December 13th. But, in the aftermath of the European elections, and after six months of discussions, the agreement with Knds ended up on a dead end, reopening the way to an alternative consortium with the German Rheinmetall.
The reasons for the divorce
Leonardo herself confirmed the breakdown of negotiations with Knds. «Despite the efforts made, the negotiations with Knds to define a common configuration for the Italian Army’s Main Battle Tank program and to develop a broader industrial collaboration are
been interrupted”, announced the group led by CEO Roberto Cingolani. At the root of the divorce there would be Leonardo’s desire to build significant components of the new tank such as the turret through Oto Melara and the electronics through the German subsidiary Hensoldt. However, his requests were rejected by the Franco-German KNDS in order to “safeguard the standard configuration of the Leopard 2”.
New allies in Germany
At this point Leonardo could go looking for new allies to build “more Italian” tanks. In particular, the collaboration proposal put forward in the past by the German Rheinmetall could come back into vogue. «We offer to build in Italy and together with the national champions of the Defense Industry the largest European land hub which will allow Italy to be a protagonist not only in the avionics and naval dimension but also in the land technological component» reiterated the CEO of Rheinmetall Italia, Alessandro Ercolani, in a parliamentary hearing at the end of November.
