Leopard tanks in the foreground.
The offer of the German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Greece, during his visit to Istanbul, aroused interest in Turkey, as reported by a publication in ETHNOS.
“Germany, which came to Istanbul with a donor, went to Greece with such an offer… Those who hear this will be enraged,” say the Turks.
The Germans, who are not giving Turkey a Eurofighter, are preparing to give a critical weapon to Greece, which has declared war on Ankara.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an advocate of the genocide in Gaza, cut a doner with Ekrem Imamoglu and Abdullah Gul at the consular residence in Tarabya, Istanbul, and posed solemnly with those present.
Steinmeier then visited author Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in Beyoglu, where he saw a protest about Palestine.
The German company Melita Power (MPD), the official distributor of MTU engines of Rolls Royce and Daimler in Greece, knocked on the door of the Minister of Defense Nikos Dendias in order to install more powerful engines in the old Leopard models that are in the stocks of the Greek army.
MPD officials suggested that Dendias and his team replace the engines used in the Leopard 1A5 tanks with more modern versions.
There are over 500 Leopard tanks type 1A3, 1A5 and 1V in the reserves of the Hellenic Armed Forces. These tanks, built in the 1980s, use MTU-MB838-CaM500 engines with 819 hp. While the most modern Leopard tanks, on the other hand, use MTU engines with a power of about 1500 hp.
The government of Athens between 1981 and 1984 received 106 Leopards 1A3-GR-MBT from Germany. While in 1991, the Netherlands granted the Greeks 170 Leopard 1Vs that were in the reserves of the Dutch army. In 2003, the Germans signed an agreement to produce 170 Leopard 2A6 HEL (Hellenic), some parts of which would be assembled in Greece.
The delivery of the tanks was completed in 2009.
It is not known what the Athens administration responded to the German proposal to upgrade the engines of the Leopar-1 type tanks.
However, the Greek press enthusiastically welcomed the possibility of implementing the modernization package which would give the tanks considerable flexibility.
According to the reports, not only the Leopard-1 series tanks are on the agenda of the Greek army, but also the 2A4 type tanks.
Reports in the Greek press about what the Germans are offering in Athens have revealed that the upgrade package does not just consist of replacing the engine.
The Berlin government also wants to redesign the outer protective layer of Greek tanks and reinforce them with a new generation of composite armor.
Depending on preferences, the tanks can also optionally be equipped with a laser targeting warning system, air conditioning, additional driving cameras and other accessories.
The Germans had openly embargoed MTU engines that were to be used in the initial production of Turkey’s ALTAY main battle tank, closing the door on a lucrative export option that would cover hundreds of tank engines.
The delay of the ALTAY program due to the Berlin engine embargo gave Turkey an opportunity for domestic production. The BMC company will deliver the first 100 units of the new ALTAY tank with the South Korean-made engine, while the next tanks will use the domestic and national 1500 hp BATU engines.
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