First Leopard 1s Nearly Ready for Delivery to Ukraine
The first of up to 100 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks will soon be ready for transfer to Ukraine. In February Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands partnered to deliver the Leopard 1s with the fleet to be repaired and refurbished at Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG). On Monday Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s Acting Defense Minister, visited FFG with the Defense Conciliation Circle and members of Danish parliament’s the Defense Committee and the Foreign Policy Council to see the progress.
“I am very happy to be able to invite parliamentary politicians to FFG, so that they can also see how far we are in the process of refurbishing Leopard 1 tanks,” said Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s Acting Defense Minister, “it is a large and important donation to the Ukrainian freedom struggle, which was made possible with broad support from the other parties in the Folketing and which we hope to be able to send to Ukraine very soon.”
The 100 Leopard 1s will enable at least two tank battalions to be formed. When training for the Ukrainian crews who will operate the Leopards will take place hasn’t been disclosed. Focus has been largely on the crews training on Leopard 2. A similar four week program for the Leopard 1 crews is likely. Following the visit Danish ambassador in Germany Susanne Hyldelund shared a short video of a Leopard 1 on twitter, saying “yesterday we visited #FFG in Flensburg, where the repair is in full swing.”
Denmark’s defense minister noted that during his recent visit to Ukraine, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, had thanked him for Denmark’s support and donations, Poulsen said: “it is a donation that the Ukrainians demand and which fits well with the other Ukrainian equipment”. The 1A5s are equipped with all-weather night sights and the capable Krupp-Atlas Elektronik EMES 18 fire control system.
While the Leopard 1A5 date from the 1980s and arguably aren’t as capable as the Leopard 2s being transferred by Portugal, Poland, Germany, Canada and Norway they represent much needed armor that can be deployed with some of Ukraine’s newly brigades. Ukraine will also be receiving more than a dozen British Challenger 2s and more than 30 M1 Abrams from the United States.