Singapore Set to Acquire Leopard Tanks from Germany

The Singapore Ministry of Defence and the German Federal Ministry of Defence intend to agree upon the sale of Leopard 2A4 tanks from the German Armed Forces to the Singapore Armed Forces.

The acquisition package will consist of 66 Leopard 2A4 tanks together with 30 spare tanks and supporting equipment. Training on the Leopard tanks will be provided by the German Army.

This acquisition underscores the good defence relationship between Germany and Singapore.


http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/news_and_...1dec06_nr2.html

Key Platform Capabilities

Protection. At 55.15 tons, the Leopard 2A4 tank features spaced multi-layered armour that offers protection against tank guns, armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) cannons and anti-tank weapons.

Mobility. The Leopard 2A4 tank is powered by the MTU MB 873 Ka-501 diesel engine that delivers 1500 hp, giving the tank one of the most favourable power-to-weight ratios in its class. The Leopard 2A4 has a top speed of 72km/h.

Lethality. The Leopard 2A4 is equipped with the 120mm, L44 smoothbore gun, which has the capability to defeat all other armour fighting vehicles.

Potential for Future Growth. The Leopard 2A4 configuration allows the flexibility for future growth. Hence, customised upgrades required for the operations in local environment and integration with other platforms and systems of the 3rd Generation SAF can be implemented at a later appropriate time.

Enhancement in Capability

The Leopard 2A4 surpasses the SM1 in protection and firepower. It is comparable to SM1 in mobility. As a replacement for some of the Army's SM1s, the introduction of the Leopard 2A4 represents a significant enhancement in the army's capability.

:o :blink: :lol:

Don't get me wrong, but I find the above statement...errr...weird in so many ways its not funny. Good move by the SAF though...its overdue

Edit: Merged the relevant posts from the "Talk on MBTs" thread to this one. Apologies to Black Aces as the merge means he's no longer the threadstarter (which he originally was)

ok...so now we know why CJ posted the leopard 2 tanks pics and stuff.....great stuff.....

hahaha

up till now still refuse to acknowledge the tempest.......

Delete

Duplicate post

fark me!

Leopards IIs !!!

somebody pinch me ...

When the Aussies got their discounted M1's I was wondering if we will consider getting the Leo IIs given the Bundeswehr was selling them real cheap. Hey hey ;)

Overall I think this is a good decision on 3 fronts ...
i) The Leo II is IMHO a very capable but often under-rated platform.
ii) Like our submarine pruchases, they represent very good value for money given the threat environment we operate in.
iiI) From what I've read, the German Army represents the best organisation from whom we can learn relevant MBT operations from ... more so than the Israelis.

Now the speculation can begin on whether we'll retain the vanilla 2A4 or will we be upgrading it to A5/A6 comparable specs :D

The wait is finally over. This is it.. a new chapter begins for SAF armour :D

Instead of the boxy looking A4, i wish it was the A6 though (cos of the sleek merkava4-like turret) :P

I remember somebody posting a Wiki(?) article on the Leo 2.

I prefer this site ... http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/leo2.htm

More informative ...

I bet that Israeli vehtronices like FCS system , thermal sight etc will be added to have them perhaps even uparmour to near A6 standard except the gun.

For the A4 version, the gun control is still using a hydraulic system whereas from A5 onward it is using better all electrical system, and the A4 should be using the L44 gun whereas from A6 onward, it is using higher muzzle velocity L55 gun.

Another further funny thing is that why are we getting such a large # of spare tanks, especially since there are still many Leo 2 in operation all the world, so spares should not be a problem.

Perhaps to be modified for new AVLB , ARV????

The sleeker shape of the 2A5/2A6 is from bolt-on armour. I won't be surprised if SAF gets the bolt-on kits for the 2A4s we're getting.

And about half-a-dozen sub-variants...various heavy CEVs for starters B)

yes.. a time honored practice. From Korea, perhaps? ;)

Btw, a good quality video on the Finnish Leo2A4 in action

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvT_RqxyCxU...related&search=

<_< - I was reading googles on Leo2A4 and found that the Danes upgraded their A4s to A5 std...

http://www.armyvehicles.dk/leopard2a4.htm

http://www.armyvehicles.dk/leopard2a5.htm

Guess the FCS / BMS / doctrine wld be heavily influenced by the Mexicans? No? <_<

And.....our LT is still on - I suppose - read b/w the lines of the statement....

Southpark
The Dude

Wow! German Armour! Brute force + maneuverability! :o SAF has sent us the wrong way guessing! :lol:

I guess the answer lies in the semantics ... ?

My guess is that the figure of 30 includes the AVLB, ARVs ... and perhaps about half will be actual "spare" 2A4s that will go to SOA as training vehicles.

YouTube - Leo2A5

;)

Mein Gott! I really wonder what our neighbors are going to say.

ADD: I wonder how the numbers reported (66+30 Spare) work out in terms of how they are to be organized. Does it also give an indication how many non-existent Tempests we might possibly not have?

Dude, I won't be surprised that a thread about Leo2A4 vs PT-90 will soon spring up in some forums such as WAFF! :)

^^; - and de-generate v. quickly into a pissing match :lol:

Heh ... was thinking that myself :lol:

I've given up on getting any work done today ...

No, either we are downsizing or it is just the first batch.

I think having publicly announced MBTs is not so sensitive anymore , but having large qty of it is still sensitive.

Anyway , it's does not means that we are scrapping Tempest, most probably ithey will be in storage in the future.

emmm.....

i wondered how much it is going to cost us....and when it is scheduled for delivery.......

will it be based in spore?????

maybe the training for the core team has completed in the land of beer and hotdogs!!!!!

How much? 66+30 hulls?

I would think many more hulls(~200) but just a few that will upgrade to A6 standard.

And knowing the SAF, for every public announcment, there should be some crouching tigers and hidden dragons.

And there is no worrying talk of having to come up with doctrines et al. Would we see another training detachment over in Europe soon? Might happen..

:lol:

If we have a training detachment in Germany, soon all the boys in Gedong will want to get posted there. ;)

Yes just think of the German beer festival! Gedong Armour bros are known to drink alot! :)

I wonder what kind of systems will the SAF slap onto the new tanks...sure a big leap forward from the vernarable Tempests and SM1s....But kinda surprised why there is still no light tank replacements... :)

How much? Am wondering too ...

The Norwegians bought theirs in 2001 for approx. US$3 million each. The Canadians are saying that the 2A4 can be had for US$0.35 million in 2006.

It's interesting to note the sudden proliferation of the Leo 2 given the recent fire sale by the Bundeswehr.

Would be interesting to see how they are organised now that their being openly acknowledged.

Assuming that we've ever operated Tempest, it'd be safe to say that they've pretty much operated as a pure MBT armour battalion. Given that the workup has been done (unless they've been pissing around this last 20 years), it wouldn't be too hard to drop in the Leo 2 into the existing battalion and have it OR very quickly indeed.

Which might mean that unless MINDEF buys more MBTs or starts portioning company sized elements of MBTs to the SAs, it'd be very likely that the current armour formations' TO&E (incl. the above "phantom" MBT battalion) will be retained with a Bionix Based (?) SM1 replacement likely to be revealed soon to fill the FS role of the SM1.

It's a great move. Just surprised it's not more.

Probably more relevant would be the MOUT or PSO version.

Lol! I think the best that Sg Gedong can offer will be no match for the Bundeswehr panzer truppen. Our best "tiger" beer is probably like water to the krauts. Still, this news has made me excited enough to go sign on as an Armor officer/spec. Who wanna got ARC with me tomorrow? :lol: :lol:

I really want to know what kinda refurbishment is Mindef talking about.

Fudge ...

Just heard on the news, timeline is delivery in 2008 ... bugger :(

ok leh....

considerin it takes 14 mths to build a merk.....

....refurbishing 66 tanks take time u noe... :lol:

Who is the Lucky Battalion to get the Tanks, 41 SAR?

Deployment will be interesting.

It's more like I wanted to see one this coming 30th Dec !!!!!

[tantrum] I wan! Iwan! [/tantrum]

:D

Maybe we might see one demonstrator? :lol:

Now that we know what that Leo2A4 was purchased, all the speculation about Sabra and Merk3Baz were quite inaccurate :)

I hope they put the Tempest/Centurions to good use, like convert some to bridgelayers, SP Arty, Air Defence, etc.

Now, return to the SM1 replacement speculation, my guess is either a Bionix/SPH chassis and a local turret or 120mm M8 Thunder ... :)

Why was the procurement of theose Centurions still officially acknowledged till today?

It's already mentioned in the wikipeadia ! :unsure:

wikipeadia does not equal complete truth. Maybe your teacher have not inform you, using wikipeadia as the sole source for offical work is asking for trouble.


As mentioned by someone Disinformation is also a weapon.

You r rite...where the hell they got all these wrong data !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Army

The Faith of Old Tanks are Sealed the Day they were made.

The Rare Few will be Gate Guardians.

Others (If the numbers are too few, and too expensive to upkeep)
A Centurion in an Australian 84 RR Range, been put to good use.

woah...this is big news

will be keeping my eyes peeled when i go to sungei gedong for my reservist...