Aloha everyone!!

Just a simple question. Can anyone explain to me why it is in the defense industry that when a product is developed for an army (in this case the Leopard 2A6 for Germany) and then exported to other armed forces with changes that the "home" country doesn't also adapt these changes to their own vehicles and or tanks? Just wondering.I was looking into getting the Hobby Boss Spanish version of the A6 and doing it up in German livery.


Thank you in advance!!!!

Kurt

To the best of my knowledge the Strv-122 turret top armor changes were a Swedish requirement and this was incorporated into the 2A6EX which the Spanish 2E is based on. But that doesn't mean the Bundeswehr wants to pay to refit all their perfectly fine Leo 2s to 2A5/6 EX.

Paul

So if you order and buy a red Chevy Malibu with a sunroof and a purple wheels, GM should build every Malibu like yours after that? Think about it.

Kurt,

A good analogy is a car rental company buys 5000 Chevy Malibu's for their rental fleet. The next year's model comes out with new features. The car rental company will keep their original 5000 until they are fully depreciated or wrecked out. If they need a new one then they will buy a new model.

Paul

Because the "home" version works for them. The country that put in the order has the oppertunity to make the changes because usually they aren't built yet.

And also because somebody modifies a piece of kit doesn't generally make it better


cheers

Hi Kurt,

when the Leopard 2 A5/A6 were deveolped in the early 1990`s, we had several trial vehicles, so called Truppenversuchsmuster TVM. With the main focus on a tank-vs-tank battle we chose the TVM minimum. The later Leopard 2 A6 has only the longer 120 mm /L55 gun instead of the /L44. Other nations like Greece or Spain or Sweden ordered later the more sophisticated versions for local demands. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann regulary develops upgrade kits of their products, but I have my doubts that your army will field the PSO or A7+ version.

Hans-Hermann

Hi!
Specially for the Leopard there are different reasons:

Each country, depending on in which environment they use the tank, has different requirements. This might be a reason of climate (hot or cold) of the buyer nation, or any other equipment (for example the aux generator), which some countries think they need, and others don´t. Some countries increase the protection from the top (roof), others do think from their doctrine that they don´t need that. It is mainly a question of requirements by the military authorities regarding possible future battle grounds.

Each equipment you add increases the weight. So you do have to pick the equipment you need and leave away the other things. If you put everything available into a Leopard 2, you would produce a weight about of 70t plus. So you have to select carefully upon your absolute needs.

Another thing is the money. You buy what you absolutely need and leave off all that what is nice to have but not affordable. Just as with your car.

So, depending on the battle environment, totaly different configurations are needed. We are far away now from classic tank vs tank battles. More we come closer to urban warefare in countries like A´stan or Irak. That´s why just within the last 5-8 years so much different modification kits were offered for Leopard2.

Andreas