FOR sale: 101 used Leopard main battle tanks, in going order, never seen any action except war games, please apply Australian Defence Force, price negotiable.
The army is offering its 1960s vintage Leopard 1 tanks for sale to a foreign buyer and is negotiating with several unnamed countries, The Australian reports.
The once formidable German-built Leopards are now surplus to requirements. Much of the ADF`s inventory is being upgraded or replaced under a $20 billion-a-year defence acquisition program.
The tanks never saw action, although a squadron was loaded in preparation for deployment to East Timor in 1999 but then unloaded because in the words of one senior armoured corps officer: "It might have sent the wrong message to the Indonesians."
The Howard government bought the army 59 refurbished M1A1 Abrams from the US as it was concerned the Leopards had passed their use-by date and were vulnerable to the latest anti-armour missiles.
The 42-tonne Leopards, worth $600,000 each in their day, entered service in 1977 as a replacement for the British-made Centurion. They were verging on obsolescence in Germany when they were acquired by the ADF.
The pensioned-off Leopards are now under canvas in a field at the army`s Bandiana storage facility in Victoria awaiting a foreign military buyer
"The Leopard fleet consists of around 100 vehicles. Discussions are continuing with a number of potential buyers," a Defence spokeswoman said.
Mr.Gustav is spot on, and DFSW Platoons will be licking their lips at the prospect of some decent anti-armour practice for a change.As for the rest of the arm chair generals,forget this geo-political, strategic/tactical w@nk, how about working yourselves into a frenzy over something practical, like decent boots???
Posted by: Jimmy 3:03pm today
we may need the tanks for the impending alien invasion in 2012
Posted by: wanderer of atlantis 3:02pm today
Bulletproof of Melbourne - yes the M1A1s are "second-hand", but they are totally remanufactured in the US, and come off the line with ZERO hours on them - everything that needs to be replaced is either replaced with new or fully remanufactured. Hulls are stripped bare, sandblasted and repainted, and all internals, including weapons systems, replaced with new or refurbished items.There was a great program on Foxtel (Megafactories) about the facility that does this, and it showed refurbished M1A1s coming off the line , complete with little kangaroos painted on them.Having seen the lengths they go to to make them as good as new, my cynicism in our government buying "old" tanks is largely dispelled. The Seasprite helicopter contract on the other hand, was a complete joke - the airframes were over 40 years old!
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