Rheinmetall expects to complete its programme to upgrade Poland’s Rheinmetall Leopard-2A4 Main Battle Tanks by October 2020, the company has disclosed.
On 28 December 2015, Rheinmetall signed a contract with Poland for the upgrade of 128 Leopard-2A4 MBTs which will include the option for an additional forty vehicle upgrades. At a recent Rheinmetall press conference held this October in Berlin, Dr. Björn Lach, senior vice president for tracked vehicles at the company, informed journalists that the programme would be running through to 31 October 2020.
The transfer of manufacturing know-how for the upgrade from Rheinmetall to its local partner Bumar Labedy, will run from 2016 to 2018. This will include four months training in Germany, with the first prototype upgraded Leopard-2A4 ready by the end of 2017, with the second MBT to commence its upgrade in August 2018 be ready for delivery by October 2018. After this, Poland will produce twelve vehicles, and then perform the upgrade at a rate of 15 vehicles monthly, with the first Polish MBT completing its upgrade in 2018. Furthermore, Dr. Lach informed journalists that Rheinmetall is continuing the upgrade of the Indonesian Army’s Leopard-2A4 MBTs, with the programme scheduled to be concluded in 2017.
