May 26, 2013: Strategy Page

After several years of negotiations Indonesia has agreed to purchase a large quantity of Cold War surplus armored vehicles from Germany. These include 104 Leopard 2A6 tanks, 50 Marder 1A2 infantry fighting vehicles and ten Leopards modified for support functions (4 Armored Recovery Vehicles, 3 mobile bridge-layers, and 3 AEVs for engineering work under fire.) The deal is worth about $250 million. This German armor is based on 1970s and 80s designs and is replacing even older British and French stuff from the 1950s and 60s. Indonesia has no real enemies nearby, and a hundred modern tanks should be able to handle any local emergency.

Until 2010 the 55 ton Leopard 2A6 was the current version, and is a contemporary of the American M-1. The 2A6 model has a stabilizer (for firing on the move) and a thermal imager (for seeing through night, mist and sand storms.) Germany has been selling less capable refurbed 2A4s since the 1990s (after the Cold War ended and the German army was much reduced in size.) This enabled many nations to inexpensively upgrade their aging armored forces. In the last decade, many nations have upgraded their Leopards to the A6 standard. Many nations prefer to continue upgrading their Leopards, mainly because there are no new tank designs to buy. The late-Cold War models, especially the American M-1 and the German Leopard 2 are still the best available.

Germany now offers a 2A7+ upgrade for the Leopard 2. This provides improvements to mobility (engine, track laying system, wheels and related gear), better soundproofing for the crew, more (and better) thermal sights, and more effective ammunition for the 120mm gun (fragmentation shells that detonate above or behind a target). Other improvements include more armor on the sides and rear (especially to protect against RPGs), more external cameras (so the crew inside could see anything in any direction, day or night), a remote control machine-gun station on top of the turret, better fire control and combat control computers and displays, more powerful auxiliary power unit and better air conditioning, and numerous other minor improvements. This would increase the weight of the tank to nearly 70 tons.