Plans to upgrade the Norwegian Army’s Leopard 2A4 MBTs have been cancelled. Norwegian Army’s plans to upgrade the Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks (MBTs) have been abandoned following the publication of the government’s revised budget in May. A reduced MBT capability will be retained until 2025, when a new tank or an interim solution will be introduced. A reduced MBT capability will be retained until 2025, when a new tank or an interim solution will be introduced. Only 30 of the 52 tanks in the Norwegian Army inventory are operational.
The government of Norway adopted a long term plan back in December 2017, to expand the potential of the land forces. The assumption is to further expand the investment in the area of direct air defence assets used by the Army.
Upgrade proposals to adopt Germany’s Leopard 2A7V or a development of the CV90 infantry fighting vehicle were rejected. The MoD said its reasons were that modernising the MBTs “would not provide sufficiently capable tanks to meet developments in the threat of modern weapons and ammunition types”.Measures to maintain the Leopard 2A4s until 2025 “are being investigated”, the MoD added, while admitting that the Norwegian tank fleet’s operational capabilities would be gradually reduced and its numbers may be slightly reduced.
The Norwegian MoD is willing to give consideration to a variety of options, when it comes to the MBTs domain. Maintaining the tanks in the active service and in-depth upgrades as well as acquisition of a new platform are both considered to be viable here. The Norwegian decision is yet another symptom of a main battle tanks’/land forces’ renaissance.
