Canada prepares to rebalance Leopard force

[Luftwaffe]

Canada prepares to rebalance Leopard force​

Jane's Defence
The Canadian Army has taken delivery of its first upgraded Leopard 2A4M CAN main battle tank (MBT), which will be deployed to Afghanistan in November as part of a staged replacement of the Leopard 2A6M CANs currently in theatre.

A Canadian Army spokesperson told Jane's that "the tanks that we now have in Afghanistan are the ones that were borrowed from Germany and they have been there since 2007. Some of them have seen very hard service in extreme conditions and are worn-out and require repair and overhaul beyond what is possible in theatre".

As a result, the spokesperson added that "up to five" of the in-theatre tanks will be replaced with the newly refurbished 2A4Ms, but that the remaining 15 Leopard 2A6M CANs will stay in Afghanistan "until the end of the mission".

Canada is set to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan next year, but a debate is under way as to whether the country can or should extend its commitment. However, the spokesperson added that "from now until July 2011, the goal for the Canadian Forces [CF] in Kandahar province will be to set the conditions for a smooth transition and seamless transfer of responsibilities to our ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and NATO partners, allowing them to continue with already established security and stabilisation progress.

Training on the latest Leopard 2A4M CAN started on 11 October. All training has been carried out at the German Armour School facilities with a total of 120 Leopard 2 crews trained so far.