The Czech Republic will therefore be KMW's next export customer with 70 tanks Leopard German 2A8, barely a month after this model was revealed on the European scene.
Just over a month ago, the Bundeswehr announced the order for 18 heavy tanks Leopard 2 from its manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, to replace the 18 Leopard 2A6s sent to Ukraine to support Kyiv's war effort. Although this order had been expected and even formulated for several weeks, it nonetheless surprised the small world of armor specialists.
Indeed, where everyone was waiting for the Leopard 2A7+ derived from the model sold to Hungary a few months earlier, the Bundeswehr announced its next acquisition of a new version of the tank, the Leopard X, a model designed discreetly by KMW to meet changing market expectations largely conditioned by the lessons of the war in Ukraine. This order had the effect of a small bomb in Germany as well as on the world market for heavy tanks.
The A8 indeed integrates expected developments to put the Leopard 2 at the level of its direct competitors such as the South Korean K2 and possibly the KF-51 Panther from the German Rheinmetall, including the reinforced digitalization of all crew stations, advanced optical and optronic systems, as well as the native integration of the Eurotrophy hard-kill protection system, making Leopard 2A8 the first European tank in production to have this type of equipment as standard.
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[โฆ] the context surrounding the MGCS program has once again changed significantly, since the Czech Republic has announced that it has mandated its Minister of Defense to acquire 70 of the nโฆ as part of the modernization of its armies. In addition, several other armed forces, [โฆ]
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