According to the German armaments group Rheinmetall, it will not be able to repair Leopard 2 main battle tanks for Ukraine until 2024 at the earliest.
“Even if the decision is made tomorrow that we can send our Leopard tanks to Kyiv, delivery will take until the beginning of next year,” said CEO Armin Papperger of the German “Bild am Sonntag”.
Completely new structure
The group owns 22 decommissioned Leopard 2 tanks and 88 vehicles from the previous Leopard 1 model. The repair will take almost a year, said Papperger. “The vehicles are not only repainted, they have to be converted for use in the war. They are completely dismantled and then rebuilt.” Without an order, the group cannot make the tanks operational, as this costs several hundred million euros. “Rheinmetall cannot pre-finance that,” said Papperger.
