WARSAW \u2014 Germany’s Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH and Poland’s state-run defense company Bumar-Labedy SA have signed a deal worth \u20ac130 million\u00a0(US $144 million) to modernize the Leopard 2A4 tanks, which are operated by the Polish military, Bumar-Labedy said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the plan, Rheinmetall will build a prototype upgraded tank, dubbed the Leopard 2PL, and modernize a trial batch of about a dozen units. Following this, the German manufacturer will transfer its know-how to Bumar-Labedy, and the Gliwice-based company will upgrade the remaining tanks. In 2002, Poland acquired 128 Leopard 2A4s from the German Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bumar-Labedy is part of the state-run Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), an entity set up by the Polish authorities to integrate the country’s fragmented state-owned defense industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rheinmetall and PGZ are also cooperating on a program to develop a new armored vehicle for the Polish military, with Poland’s planned military vehicle tender in mind. Last year, the two partners unveiled plans to develop a six-wheel-drive armored vehicle “oriented to the requirements of the Polish Army’s LOTR [light armored reconnaissance vehicle] procurement program.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poland’s Ministry of Defence is planning to replace the military’s outdated Soviet-built BRDM-2 amphibious armored vehicle with a new vehicle, which is to weigh less than 20 tons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rheinmetall will build a prototype upgraded tank, dubbed the Leopard 2PL, and modernize a trial batch of about a dozen units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":77922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3389],"class_list":["post-36533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-land"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"IWCP5WZYXZAH3KTEWEWFHGDJU4","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2016\/02\/19\/rheinmetall-bumar-labedy-sign-144m-polish-tank-modernization-deal\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n