Lithuania wants to assemble Leopard 2A8 tanks on its own

Lithuania is negotiating the assembly of the ordered Leopard 2A8 tanks in the center of the country in cooperation with local enterprises.

This was reported by lrt.lt, citing Minister of National Defence Dovile Šakalienė.

The minister said that the representatives of the tank manufacturer would arrive in the country in the following weeks to agree on the details of the assembly of the tanks in Lithuania. This will allow a significant portion of the contract costs to remain within the country.

At the end of last year, the country signed a contract with the German division of KNDS for the supply of 44 Leopard 2A8 tanks.

Šakalienė did not specify the details of the possible location of tank production, but a potential candidate for this role could be Lithuania Defense Services, which services the company’s equipment and repaired their PzH 2000 howitzers for Ukraine.

“There are some initial options, including joint German-Lithuanian companies that could do a significant part of the work. But as soon as the manufacturer arrives, we will discuss how the assembly could be carried out in such a way as to ensure the timely delivery of the tanks and leave as much value as possible in Lithuania,” she said.

Lithuania Defense Services was established in June 2022 by German companies Rheinmetall AG and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (now KNDS Deutschland) as part of the local infrastructure for the maintenance and repair of NATO military equipment.

The modern maintenance and logistics center covers an area of approximately 12,000 square meters. The facility is capable of servicing Boxer and PUMA armored vehicles, Bergepanzer 2, various versions of Leopard 2 tanks, and 155 mm Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers.

According to the initial agreement, the first tank company is to arrive in Lithuania in 2029, and a full tank battalion will have been formed in 2034.

According to the minister, an advance payment for the tanks will be made in the coming months, which will speed up their delivery to Lithuania. The country’s government wants to speed up the delivery of the tanks as it aims to create its own army division by 2030.

“We now hope that the first tanks will start arriving in 2028. The majority of tanks could arrive in 2029, with the rest arriving in 2030,” said D. Šakalienė.

Along with tanks, Lithuania intends to produce Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, counting on local assembly of vehicles ordered for Northern Europe and the Baltic states.

Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Lithuania planned to jointly purchase hundreds of CV90 combat vehicles.