International Audience Celebrates Enduring Legacy

At a celebration in Munich attended by a wide range of international guests from military and industrial circles on 20 November, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW – a member of the Franco-German defence technology group KNDS) marked the 40th anniversary of the LEOPARD 2 main battle tank.

Late in 1979 the Bundeswehr introduced the first LEOPARD, which brought to the service a unique operational combination of the criteria governing combat value: firepower, mobility, protection and ‘commandability.’ A programme of continuous development, upgrading and capability insertion since then have made the LEOPARD 2 – now in the A7V variant – one of the most reliable main battle tanks currently in service – an assertion to which 19 current user nations can attest.

Selected international guests took part in a panel discussion entitled “A European Tank Fleet: First Step Towards a European Army” and discussed, among other subjects, the future outlook for the LEOPARD 2.