photo armyrecognition.com
December 12, 2011. David Pugliese - Defence Watch
This is from Agence France Press:
VIENNA — Austria is in talks to sell 40 second-hand Leopard 2A4 tanks back to their German manufacturer after Vienna balked at the Canadian military buying them, a report said Monday.
Austrian defence ministry spokesman Michael Bauer confirmed only that talks with the firm, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, were “going well, although nothing has been signed yet.”
The Austrian daily Kronen-Zeitung said the Canadian military had also expressed interest in buying the 15-year-old tanks, which Krauss-Maffei will buy back for $545,280 Cda each and then modernize.
“But that would have meant so much red tape, since the Canadians are fighting in Afghanistan, meaning that the sale would not have been approved,” the paper cited an unnamed army insider as saying.
This created consternation among some partners in the NATO military alliance, although “as luck would have it” Canada decided it was no longer interested, the daily added.
The paper said Austria bought the tanks for 1.3 million euros each in 1996.
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