Austria is developing a plan for a large-scale rearmament of its army, which includes the purchase of a Leopard 2A8 tank battalion.

Austrian media outlet Extra24 reported on this, citing party documents of the ruling coalition.

The leaks of the party negotiations reveal a plan to rearm the Austrian military, which should include a new tank battalion – 58 Leopard 2 tanks.

The new tanks are to be purchased in the most modern version of the Leopard 2A8, which costs EUR 29 million per unit, resulting in a total investment of EUR 1.7 billion. However, this cost probably includes not only tanks but also spare parts and other expenses.

The journalists noted that all the points of the rearmament plan were marked green in confidential documents, which indicates that they were agreed upon by the coalition parties.

Modernization of tank forces

Currently, the Austrian army has only one tank battalion of 58 Leopard 2A4 vehicles, which are part of the 4th Heavy Infantry Brigade.

These vehicles were purchased from the Netherlands in the 1990s and have been actively used by the Austrians since then. In 2022, the German manufacturer KMW decided to overhaul and partially modernize them.

As part of the €240 million contract, all vehicles of the tank battalion will receive an upgrade of the tank’s onboard electronics to the Leopard 2A7 standard.

The upgrade package includes new observation systems for the commander, gunner, and driver that will improve situational awareness, reconnaissance and night vision capabilities, and fire control. The basis for this is an updated electronic architecture in which data is distributed via the CAN bus. To improve the quality of guidance, the old guidance drives have been replaced with electric motors.

At the same time, the modernization does not involve improvements in protection and armament. Thus, the vehicle will remain equipped with the RH-120/L44 smoothbore gun with a barrel length of 44 caliber and armor level of the 1980s.

The first vehicle under this project was delivered to Germany at KMW in August 2023. The first converted main battle tank is expected to arrive only in 2026, and the last in 2028.

Meanwhile, Germany has signed a number of contracts to develop a new artillery unit and power plant, which will be part of the new Leopard 2 tank modification.