delivery of weapons
Rheinmetall is upgrading old Leopard tanks for Ukraine
A Leopard 1 tank (stock image). Rheinmetall is preparing around 30 of the tanks for Ukraine. photo
© Daniel Reinhardt/dpa
The Leopard 1 main battle tank is actually long history – and is now supposed to help Ukraine defend its country. Rheinmetall buys several dozen in Belgium.
Germany’s largest armaments company Rheinmetall has bought old Leopard main battle tanks from Belgium in order to refurbish them and send them to Ukraine on behalf of the German government. According to the agreement, around 30 Leopard 1 tanks will be delivered, said a company spokesman in Düsseldorf.
He did not name the timetable for the delivery. However, it will still take some time before the old device with its 120 mm cannon is suitable for the front. The Leopard 1 was used in the Bundeswehr from 1965 to 2003, its successor is the Leopard 2. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported on the Rheinmetall deal.
Purchase from a Belgian company
The tanks come from the Belgian company OIP Land Systems, which had the old weapon systems in stock and sold around 50 to Rheinmetall. Some of the vehicles were in such poor condition that some can only be used as a treasure trove for components – this reduces the number of tanks that can be delivered to around 30.
OIP Land Systems CEO Freddy Versluys told UK newspaper The Guardian that he had sold 49 tanks to another European government, which he could not name due to a confidentiality clause. He couldn’t reveal the price either. Versluys added that it could take up to six months for them to be on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Funding from the federal government
The Leopard deal has several steps: First, Rheinmetall buys the steel giants from the Belgian company, then they are technically upgraded and then shipped east. The German arms manufacturer is paid for by the federal government, which intends to use it to support Ukraine.
It is common for old military equipment to be discarded by the army after decades of use and sold back to industry. She stores the steel colossuses and assumes that there might be a need again at some point and she can estimate a higher price. Last winter, Belgium already wanted to buy the old Leopard tanks from OIP Land Systems and thus support Ukraine, but the Belgian Ministry of Defense waved them off because the price was too high.
Rheinmetall produces ammunition for Panzer Gepard
Rheinmetall is already heavily involved in supporting Ukraine, having supplied other tanks, artillery and ammunition. The company is currently working on an extremely important ammunition order for the Gepard anti-aircraft tank in Ukraine, of which Germany has provided 55 so far. The cheetah was decommissioned by the Bundeswehr in 2010, in Ukraine it became an important support in airspace defense.
However, there was a shortage of ammunition, the 35 millimeter old stock delivered last year was low. Although Switzerland still has quite a lot of it, it refuses to pass it on for reasons of neutrality. Rheinmetall therefore had to produce the ammunition again and received an order from Berlin for a total of 300,000 shots in 35 mm caliber. The first batch of 10,000 shots is to be delivered by the end of this summer, with a further 30,000 to follow by the end of the year. “Production is running at full speed,” said the Rheinmetall spokesman.