Leopard 2E comes to IDEX
Taking part in the mobility display is a Spanish Army Leopard 2E Main Battle Tank (MBT) that is currently in full-scale production at the facilities of General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas in Seville. This is the only MBT on display at IDEX this year.
The MBTs are being manufactured under licence from German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (Stand OD650), prime contractor for the Leopard 2 MBT, which supplied the first 30 complete tanks plus associated training. KMW also helped GD Santa Bárbara Sistemas (Stand 905) establish the production line in Spain with a large number of local contractors now involved in the Spanish Leopard 2E programme.
The Spanish Army has ordered 219 Leopard 2E (or Leopardo 2E) and 16 Rheinmetall Landsysteme Büffel armoured recovery vehicles. Of the latter, the first four came from Germany with the remaining 12 manufactured under licence by GD Santa Barbara Sistemas.
According to the Spanish company, it can export the Leopard 2E MBT to countries in the Middle East on a case-by-case basis with the approval of KMW and the German and Spanish governments.
Spanish Leopard 2E is essentially the German Army Leopard 2A6 version armed with the 120mm L/55 smoothbore gun and has a number of improvements to meet the specific operational requirements of the Spanish Army. These include an auxiliary power unit, Lince C3 command and control system and enhanced armour protection over the frontal arc.
A total of 15 countries have now ordered the Leopard 2 MBT and KMW could also market this vehicle to countries in the Middle East with the approval of the German government and with a firm end user certificate in place.
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