Rheinmetall Landsysteme is to supply 14 more Leopard 2 A4 main battle tanks (MBTs) to the Czech Republic by the end of 2026 under a contract announced by the Czech Ministry of Defence on 3 December 2024.
The contract is valued at around CZK 4 four billion (around EUR 160 million).
Rheinmetall will overhaul the MBTs and partially equip them according to Czech requirements. This might involve using MBTs from the Swiss Army’s inventory, in which the Czech Republic was interested in 2023. At that time, however, Rheinmetall was selected as the buyer and purchased 25 MBTs, which were delivered at the beginning of 2024.
The Czech Republic is thus continuing with its process of building up a modern, well-equipped armoured force and the first step has been replacing its Russian-made MBTs with used Leopard 2 A4s, with the German government financing this exchange. Since 2023 28 Leopard 2 A4 MBTs and two Büffel 3 armoured recovery vehicles have been scheduled for delivery by 2024, around half of which have already arrived in the Czech Republic. With the 3 December order the Czech inventory is set to grow to 42 Leopard 2 A4 MBTs by 2026.
The Czech Republic also wants to participate in the joint procurement of Leopard 2 A8s. In June 2024 Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that the government had decided to join an agreement on the joint purchase of tanks with other European countries, first and foremost Germany. The Czech Republic wants to purchase up to 77 Leopard 2 A8 MBTs.
Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová explained at the time that the initial plan was to procure 61 Leopard 2 A8s. An option was to be included in the contract for a further 16 Leopard 2 A8s in order to secure the purchase price from the joint procurement.
Fiala had set a target for the modernised Czech armoured force of 122 Leopard 2 MBTs by 2030, which would make it possible to equip at least two tank battalions.
