Rollout of the first Leopard 2A8 tanks for Germany and Norway plus the first Panzerhaubitze 2000A4 self propelled howitzer for Germany, by Carl Schulze.
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Munich, 19 November 2025: The Munich plant of KNDS Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG is also known as the ‘Home of the Leopard’, the famous main battle tank made in Germany. Today this plant served as stage for the rollout of the first Leopard 2A8 main battle tank for Germany, the first Leopard 2A8 for Norway and the first Panzerhaubitze 2000A4 self propelled howitzer for Germany.
Leading the rollout ceremony was Ralf Ketzel, the CEO of the KNDS Deutschland. In his speech Boris Pistorius, the German Minister of Defence, told the guests at the ceremony: “Today is a good day for the security of Europe! We are living in times that are characterised by crises and conflicts. These times require an increase production in the defence sector and the growth of our armed forces.”
Marte Gerhardsen, State Secretary of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence praised the cooperation between Germany and Norway. Markus Söder, the Minister-President of the German state of Bavaria informed the audience that Bavaria has taken to supporting the local defence industry.
[© Carl Schulze]
Newly built vehicles: The Leopard 2 was originally developed in the 1970s and the first series production vehicle was handed over to the German Armed Forces on the 25th of October 1979. The last Leopard 2 of the initial production left the plant in 1992 and since then the existing vehicles have been continuously upgraded. The Leopard 2A8s that rolled out today are the first newly produced vehicles since the early ’90s.
Full order book: Today’s rollout featured the first Leopard 2A8 of a production run of a total of 177 totally new build vehicles. Of these 54 were ordered by Norway in March 2023. Germany followed suit, and ordered 18 Leopard 2A8 in May 2023 and another 105 in July 2024; in today’s speech Minister Pistorius announced Germany is also planning to order another 75 tanks next year.
Delivery of the Norwegian vehicles is planned to be completed by 2028, while it is planned that Germany will receive its vehicles by 2030. And there are already more customers for the Leopard 2A8; Sweden ordered a total of 44 vehicles in November and December 2024 and Lithuania ordered 44 Leopard 2A8 in December 2024. With their order Lithuania becomes the 23rd nation to equip its armoured formations with the Leopard 2. Finally, in September 2025 the Czech Republic ordered 44 Leopard 2A8 tanks. Delivery of these vehicles will take place from 2028 onwards. According to KNDS officials it is believed that other nations soon will follow suit to also order Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks.
Growth potential and upgrades: When the Leopard 2 was originally designed great care was taken to establish a balanced triangle between Protection, Firepower and Mobility. It is this balance that gained the Leopard 2 its fame. Up to today many experts still rate the Leopard 2 to be one of the best main battle tanks around, many even going so far as to claim that it is the best main battle tank available.
There are two main reasons that the Leopard 2 is still a state-of-the-art weapon system today, despite its age. First, its original designers took great care to allow for a lot of growth potential and secondly, since the Leopard 2 first entered service it has been continuously incrementally upgraded. For example, the upgrade from Leopard 2A4 to Leopard 2A5 included, among other modifications, new add-on armour for the turret front and its forward sides, while an all electric gunlaying system replaced the older hydraulic based system plus the commander was given the PERI R17A2 panoramic sight that incorporates a Thermal Imaging Module (TIM).
The upgrade from Leopard 2A5 to Leopard 2A6 then featured the Rheinmetall 120mm L55 smoothbore tank gun, that replaced the older Rheinmetall 120mm L44 smoothbore tank gun and now allowed the Leopard 2A6 to engage targets out to 4,000m. The upgrade to Leopard 2A6M standard featured the incorporation of a mine protection kit. The Leopard A7V upgrade then featured: an add-on armour package for the front of the hull; an air-conditioning system for the fighting compartment; a modified transmission and final drives; the SPECTUS driver vision system that includes thermal and day light channels; the Rheinmetall L55A1 smoothbore tank gun that can fire programmable airburst ammunition and has an effective range of 5,000m; a Battle-Management- System; an auxiliary power unit; a digital SOTAS-IP vehicular communication system; a new 360° RTWL panoramic commander’s sight; and a new fire suppression system. Finally the Leopard 2A7A1 was fitted with the Active Protection System Trophy.
Leopard 2A8 features: The latest Leopard 2 variant, the Leopard 2A8, features: a digital fire control system; a digital commander’s periscope with integrated laser rangefinder; a thermal imaging systems with advanced sensors; upgraded modular protection for chassis and turret; upgraded roof protection; 360° all around protection provided by the Trophy Active Protection System; a crew compartment cooling unit; a 20 kW auxiliary power unit; reinforced running gear; an improved cooling unit for the power pack; a cross-sectional user interface with scenario adapted mission system and a mine protection kit.
Panzerhaubitze 2000A4: The rollout of the Leopards 2A8 for Germany and Norway, was teamed with the rollout of the first vehicle of a batch of 22 Panzerhaubitze 2000A4 self propelled howitzers for the German Army. Ten of the vehicles were ordered in March 2023 and the remainder in May 2023. These vehicles are required by the German Army to replace 14 vehicles delivered to Ukraine, as well as some that were cannibalised for spare parts.
Technical Data Leopard 2A8*
- Crew: 4 (Commander, Gunner, Loader and Driver)
- Length (turret 12:00 o’clock position): 11,170mm
- Width: 3,600mm
- Height: 3,130mm
- Combat weight: 69,500kg
- Engine: MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH MB 873 Ka-501 12-cylinder diesel engine developing 1,500hp
- Transmission: Renk HSWL 354 hydro-mechanic gear shift and steering transmission with four forward and two reverse gears
- Maximum speed forward: 60km/h
- Maximum speed reverse: 28km/h
- Ground clearance: 500 mm
- Deep fording with diving tower: 4,000mm
- Road range: 400km
- Trench crossing: 3,000mm
- Vertical step climbing: 1,050mm
- Gradient: 60 %
- Side slope: 30 %
- Armament: 1x 120mm Rheinmetall L55A1 smoothbore tank gun, 1x coaxial 7.62mm x 51 MG3A1 machine gun, 1x 7.62mm x 51 MG3 anti-aircraft machine gun and two banks of six 76mm smoke grenade dischargers on each side of the turret.
- On board ammunition: 42 rounds of 120mm ammunition
*Source: KNDS Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
Report and images © Carl Schulze
