Holy laggard Leopards!

More ridiculous delay in getting them serviceable, apparently owing--amongst other things--to insistence that work be done in Canada [photos added]:

The first batch of used battle tanks that Canada purchased from the Dutch have arrived more than a year behind schedule.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, head of the Canadian army, said 40 Leopard 2A-4 tanks rolled off a supply ship and onto the dock in Montreal last week.



"They are in better shape than any of us could have hoped for," Leslie said in an interview today with The Canadian Press.

The tanks, to be upgraded with extra armour for overseas missions, are being stored [emphasis added] at the 202 Canadian Forces workshop depot in Montreal.

A tender for the work, estimated at about $200 million, isn't expected to be issued for a year, say federal documents.

The 50-tonne iron monsters will sit idle while the federal government finds a company capable of the specialized modifications, which will include installing an electric turret drive, a shorter gun barrel and an air-cooling system.

The $120-million purchase of 100 tanks from the Netherlands was announced by former defence minister Gordon O'Connor in April 2007, who said they would arrive within six months. The Dutch government mothballed the tanks at the end of the Cold War...

The deal was part of a two-step process to reinforce Canadian troops battling the Taliban in the hinterlands of Afghanistan.

Fierce battles in the summer of 2006 convinced ground commanders that tanks would be needed to blast enemy fighters from behind thick mud-walled redoubts outside of Kandahar.

The army dispatched nearly 30-year-old Leopard C1s [Leopard 1 C2s actually, more here], vehicles with few spare parts and no air conditioning. In the blistering 55 C Afghan sun and choking dust, conditions in tanks were soon unbearable for their crews.

The Defence Department quickly arranged to borrow 20 Leopard [2] A6Ms from the Germans [more on the Leopard 2 A6 here], with the promise that they would be replaced by some of the tanks bought from the Dutch.

The German tanks, with extra armour to resist roadside bomb and mine blasts, are still in service in Kandahar.


[A Canadian Leopard 2 tank from C Squadron, Lord Strathcona's Horse (LdSH), fires during a firing-range exercise to adjust the 120-mm guns, near an advanced operations base in the Panjwayi district of Afghanistan.]

A federal tendering document last spring said Canada would have to rely on the borrowed tanks until 2011 because modifications on the Dutch armoured vehicles would take longer than expected.

Part of the problem is that industrial expertise to refurbish the vehicles has been lost over the years because, until Afghanistan, the army was planning to get out of the tank business and rely instead on wheeled big gun vehicles.

Leslie said negotiations are underway with the Dutch to deliver the next batch of 40 tanks, which will not require as much modification because the army intends to use them as training vehicles.

The last 20 armoured vehicles are expected to remain in Europe, where they will be modified and presented to the Germans as replacements for the vehicles being banged up in Afghanistan.

More details from Defence Industry Daily:

Canada’s plans for its new Leopard tanks are now clear. Germany will be offered 20 of the Dutch Leopard 2 A6NLs, converted to match German equipment and standards, as replacements for their loaned tanks in Afghanistan. This allows Canada to keep the German tanks in Afghanistan, and saves a great deal of money on shipping. Another 20 Dutch tanks might be upgraded to Leopard 2 A6M CAN standard (creating a force of 40), but a final decision has yet to be made.

Of the 80 Leopard 2A4 tanks, the 40 training tanks will receive a longer L55 120mm smoothbore gun like the Leopard 2A6M, but not the additional armor. The number of these Leopard 2 A4+ tanks in Canada’s inventory may rise to 60 if Canada decides not to have 40 2A6M CAN models right now, and elects to leave the add-on armor and remaining 2A6M conversion as a pre-deployment option.

The remaining 20 Leopard 2 A4s will see 8 converted to Bergepanzer 3/ Buffel Armored Recovery Vehicles: 2 deployable, 2 in reserve, and 4 for training. These vehicles can be used to tow Canadian armored vehicles out of trouble, and can perform light combat engineering. The other 12 tanks will be used as sources of spares. CASR report & MERX solicitation W8476-080001/A.

As for speedy acquisition, as well as doing work in Canada, this is what the government was saying in April 2007, for pity's sake; and only now are the tanks even arriving in Canada. Good grief!

BENEFITS FOR CANADIANS

This acquisition represents a significant opportunity for Canadian industry. Once negotiations are complete, the Dutch Leopard 2 tanks will be transported to Canada where they will receive the necessary upgrades to final Canadian Forces standards.

In the coming months, the Government of Canada will conduct one or more fair, open and competitive processes for the long-term in-service support of this fleet.

The Canadian Industrial Benefits policy will apply as appropriate. In this context, it may apply to future support, repair or upgrade contracts. The Canadian Industrial Benefits policy is the Government of Canada’s way of leveraging benefits to the Canadian economy as a result of our defence procurements.

Yet, to repeat from above, this is the situation today:

A tender for the work, estimated at about $200 million, isn't expected to be issued for a year [emphasis added], say federal documents.

Crazy.