Lithuania will participate in producing German Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks. Thus, local industry will provide assembly, as well as further support of the future fleet.
Corresponding agreements were signed between the country and German KNDS Germany. The latter together with Rheinmetall has a joint Lithuanian company Lithuania Defense Services (LDS), which most likely will perform all work.
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The current agreement provides for training workers for production, as well as repair and logistics support for 5 years after the first tank arrives. Thus, its planned to accelerate delivery to early 2028.
Recall that Lithuania ordered 44 Leopard 2A8 within a joint procurement project together with Germany. Currently, the Czech Republic and Netherlands are also included, comprising a contract for 257 units for 4 countries, and Croatia should join with 44 units.
First Leopard 2A8 tank for Bundeswehr / Photo credit: German Ministry of Defense
Such cooperation allows increasing the number of purchased tanks, which can ensure greater mass production and potentially lower price. However, they still plan to pay up to 32 million euros per unit, which is more than the same South Korean K2.
Germans lag behind Koreans not only in price, but also production rates, because currently according to available orders, 58 vehicles are planned to be produced annually, compared to 120 in South Korea. Thus, one can understand when countries make choices not toward the European development.
First Leopard 2A8 tank for Bundeswehr / Photo credit: Hartpunkt
However, this will be corrected, because for the Bundeswehr they are going to order another 75 Leopard 2A8 and continue working toward reducing the price to approximately 20-25 million euros. And this is after the first of 123 German tanks rolled out of the factory.
Overall, we see that German tank production is actively trying to increase its own capabilities, so most likely we will see more deals similar to this one with Lithuania in the future. A potential contract for Romania could help with this.
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