KMW to Supply Leopard 2 Tanks and Howitzers to Qatar

German defense firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) won a contract to supply more than 50 Leopard 2 tanks and about 20 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Qatar, a defense source told Reuters on Thursday.

The source said KMW beat a French competitor to the contract. It did not say who that competitor was or what the contract is worth. The tanks and howitzers are made by KMW in collaboration with German industrial group Rheinmetall.

In July, German magazine Spiegel had reported that Qatar wanted to buy up to 200 Leopard tanks with a potential value of up to 2 billion Euros. 

The Leopard 2 is a main battle tank developed by KMW in the early 1970s for the West German Army. The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the German Army. Various versions have served in the German Armed Forces and 12 other European countries, as well as several non-European nations. 

More than 3,480 Leopard 2s have been manufactured. The Leopard 2 first saw combat in Kosovo with the German Army and has also seen action in Afghanistan with the Danish and Canadian contributions to the International Security Assistance Force.

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