The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Portugal is buying another 18 Cold War surplus Leopard 2A6 tanks. The 55 ton Leopard 2A is a contemporary of the American M-1, but without the upgraded armor. Most 2A models have a stabilizer (for firing on the move) and a thermal imager (for seeing through night, mist and sand storms.) Germany has been selling refurbed 2A4s since the 1990s (after the Cold War ended and the German army was much reduced in size.) This enabled many nations to inexpensively upgrade their aging armored forces.
The German Leopard 2 tank continues to be a hot item in the second hand market, often to replace U.S. M-60 tanks (a 1960s design.) Already, Austria has bought 115, Canada 100, Norway 52, Sweden 160, Singapore 96, Denmark 52, Finland 124, Poland 128, Portugal 91, Greece 183, Chile 100, Turkey 298 and Spain 108. Originally, West Germany bought 2,125 new Leopard 2 tanks, the Netherlands 445, Switzerland 370, Sweden 120, Spain 219 and Greece 170. Turkey recently completed an upgrade of its 171 German Leopard 1 tanks. The major part of the upgrade is a modern fire control system. The 1960s era, 43 ton, Leopard 1 has a 105mm gun, and a top speed of 65 kilometers an hour. Turkey is also upgrading 160 similar U.S. made M-60A1 tanks. Until the 1980s, the Leopard I was considered one of the best tanks available. Entering service in the late 1960s, it was the first post-World War II German tank design. Although a contemporary of the American M-60A3, the German tank was considered superior. For this reason, Germany was able to export Leopards to many nations. Most of the 4,744 produced (plus 1,741 Leopard chassis adapted to other uses, like recovery and anti-aircraft) have since been retired (in storage) or scrapped. Many owners may have to melt down it's Leopard Is, for there's not much of a market left for 44 ton tanks, even those equipped with a lot of nifty upgrades. The original buyers of Leopard I have already flooded the market.
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