Italy Procurement of German Leopard Tank Contracts

Recent information, from navyrecognition.com, "states that Italy is in advanced negotiations to procure an undisclosed number of Leopard 2A7 or 2A8, according to the magazine Rivista Italiana Difesa."

The deal was brokered with KNDS, a joint venture between German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France's Nexter Systems.

As per the RID, the Italian army will augment their armored forces with a Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank (MBT), and it is said negotiations are near completion.

According to the magazine, the contract value for the purchase of Leopard 2 by Italy will be between € 4 billion (Rp. 65.6 trillion) to € 6 billion (Rp. 98.3 trillion).

In an earlier announcement, the Italian Defense Ministry confirmed plans to purchase at least 125 new tanks to partially replace the C.1 Ariete tanks currently in service with Esercito Italiano.

It was stated that the procurement of this new MBT would take place quickly, considering that Italy needed it.

As mentioned by RID on June 15, negotiations with KMW for the Leopard 2 tanks, especially the A7/A8 models, although they will be expensive, will strengthen the strategic alliance between Italy and Germany.