The firm OIP Land Systems (formerly Sabiex), of which Mr. Versluys is the boss, bought, according to him, a batch of 50 of these heavy tanks for two million euros after their withdrawal from the service of the Belgian armored units, which s ended in 2014.
“We only have thirty Leopards that are really equipped with a 105 mm gun. We paid about two million euros“, he said on the set of the program It’s not every day on Sunday on the private television channel RTL-TVI.
That is an average price of 40,000 euros per unit.
Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder (PS) said on Wednesday that “these tanks were resold for a sum equivalent to 10,000-15,000 euros since they no longer worked“.
“Nothing prevents us from buying them back, but they are not operational. Nor is the idea to buy them back at unreasonable prices. And at the moment, there are Belgian companies that are making a margin that is unreasonable . We are on a resale price of 500,000 euros each, for equipment which is stored in hangars and for which there has been no repair work, “she explained to the microphone of Bel-radio. RTL, two days before the federal government releases new military aid for Ukraine in the amount of more than 90 million euros – but without tanks.
Mr. Versluys assured Sunday that he had “never made an offer to the Belgian army or to (the) political world“.
“If we resell them, we resell them in condition and in order“, added the boss of OIP Land Systems, a subsidiary of OIP, a company from Oudenaarde, itself a subsidiary of the Israeli multinational Elbit Systems.
He claimed that the rehabilitation of these armored vehicles could cost up to “a million” euros per unit, depending on the specifics requested.
According to Mr. Versluys, first deliveries of these Leopards could, in case of sale, begin “without problems with the “on-board” optics and electronics in three to four monthss” at the rate of two or three tanks per month.