Rheinmetall bought 50 Leopard 1s from Belgium and will send 30 tanks to Ukraine after repairs

The day before, it became known that Belgium had sold Leopard 1 tanks to an unknown country. As it turned out, the buyer was the German company Rheinmetall, which will poison more than half of the combat vehicles to Ukraine.

Here's What We Know

This is reported by the German newspaper Handelsblatt. According to sources, Rheinmetall bought 50 tanks, 30 of which will be transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine after re-equipment. Thus, Ukraine will receive a total of almost 150 Leopard 1A5s.

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The Belgian Army sold the tanks to OIP Systems for about $17,000 per unit. The reason for the sale was the lack of hangars to store the vehicles. Belgium later wanted to transfer the Leopard 1s to Ukraine, but OIP Systems asked for more than $25 million to bring all 50 tanks into operational condition. It has not yet been specified how much Rheimetall spent on the Leopard 1 purchase.

OIP Systems has Gepard self-propelled air defence systems, in which Ukraine has shown interest. However, it is highly likely that the equipment is in very poor condition, making the cost of restoration unreasonably high.

Source: Handelsblatt