As expected, Germany aimed to expand the existing KNDS DE and Rheinmetall framework agreement for the production of 123 Leopard 2A8s.
Less predictable is that Germany acts in its own interest and for the additional number of tanks expected because last May there was talk of an additional order of 35 Leopard 2A8 while now the number would be much more substantial.
The German Ministry of Defense signed a framework agreement in 2023 with the then Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, now KNDS DE, and Rheinmetall for the production of 126 Leopard 2A8 tanks to be mostly exported.
In fact, for the needs of the Bundeswehr within the framework agreement, an order was placed for 18 newly produced Leopard 2A8s to replace the same number of Leopard 2A6s transferred to Ukraine as military aid to respond to Russian aggression.
For the other 105 tanks foreseen by the framework agreement, the Czech Republic is primarily interested, which has a requirement of 76 Leopard 2A8s and special versions, Lithuania which, in turn, plans to purchase 44-58 Leopard 2A8s to form a tank battalion in three to four companies as well as the Netherlands which intends to purchase sufficient tanks to arm a newly formed tank battalion for the German-Dutch Brigade.
It should be noted that the German Ministry of Defense and the industrial consortium have estimated that the framework agreement could be expanded in the number of tanks to be set up and that it could be extended to include the participation of other countries that could be facilitated by the negotiations already in place to obtain favorable conditions, better delivery times and supply of spare parts as well as technical and logistical support guaranteed by the German Government.
Now, according to German press sources, the Bundeswehr intends to pass on to the industrial consortium, still within the framework of the existing framework agreement, a further order for 105 new Leopard 2A8 tanks which would arm the tank battalions destined for the German Brigade stationed in Lithuania, therefore, as many as seventy tanks more than the 35 additional planned.
The value of the additional contract would be around 2 billion euros and the source of the financing still needs to be identified, if the so-called special fund. Bundeswehr of 100 billion euros approved in 2022 for the modernization and strengthening of the German Armed Forces also in light of the war between Russia and Ukraine or, alternatively, the spending chapters of the ordinary Defense budget which has been constantly increasing since 2023 compared to 2022, to bring Germany to exceed the threshold of 2% of GDP in defense spending.
Deliveries of the new Leopard 2A8 tanks should take place between 2027 and 2030 and the Bundeswehr will have a total (for the moment) of 123 examples of this model.
Furthermore, it seems that there is an availability clause worth just under 900 million euros according to which the industrial consortium will guarantee that a certain number of Leopard 2A8s are always ready and available to go into action in case of need, this because Chancellor Scholz’s Government fears that the situation with Russia could degenerate into an open conflict in the near future, while other Leopard 2A8s will have deferred, but nevertheless certain, availability times, because they are undergoing scheduled maintenance by the industry in agreement with the technical-maintenance support units of the Heer.
Photo @KNDS Deutschland
