Norway will buy 54 new next-generation Leopard 2 tanks, with an option for 18 more to replace its tanks of the same model but of an older type, the Norwegian government announced on Friday.
This Leopard 2A7 order has been under construction for several years and will renew the existing fleet of 36 aging Leopard 2A4s, some of which are to be donated to Ukraine.
The order to the German defense group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is part of the budget of 19.7 billion crowns (1.8 billion euros) already approved by Parliament.
However, the exact price of the contract was not disclosed.
“We are (…) in one of the most difficult security situations since the Second World War,” said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre during a press conference in the snow of the Rena military camp.
“We have a serious situation due to the Russian invasion (in Ukraine, editor’s note). I call it a new “Iron Curtain,” he said.
Norway hesitated between next-generation Leopards and South Korean-designed K2 Black Panther tanks.
This decision will align Norway’s armored fleet with that of its Nordic neighbors, including Sweden and Finland, which hopes to join Norway in NATO, and Germany, the government argued.
The first deliveries must be made from 2026 and last until 2031.
Of the 52 Leopards Norway bought from the Netherlands in 2001, only 36 are still in use.
Oslo promised in late January to hand some of these over to Ukraine, without specifying the number or delivery date.
For his part, the Norwegian Army’s chief of staff, Eirik Kristoffersen, had spoken out against buying new tanks, saying he would rather use that money to buy other weapons, such as rockets and long-range grenades.