Qatar buys German tanks in $2.5 billion deal

Gestart door jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter), 23/04/2013 | 10:05 uur

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Qatar takes delivery of Leopard 2A7+ MBTs

Christopher F Foss, London - IHS Jane's International Defence Review - 27 October 2016


Leopard 2A7+ for Qatar clearly showing the turret-mounted Krauss-Maffei Wingman FLW200 remote weapon station armed with a .50 M2 HB machine gun. In this image the combat side skirts are not fitted. Source: Krauss-Maffei Wegmann

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has delivered almost half of the 62 Leopard 2A7+ series main battle tanks (MBTs) on contract to Qatar. The deal is the company's first major export contract for heavy armour in the Middle East.

In addition it covers the supply of 24 PzH 2000 155 mm/52-calibre self-propelled artillery systems, 32 Fennek 4x4 reconnaissance vehicles and a batch of Dingo Heavy Duty 4x4 protected vehicles in three different versions.

The contract also includes six FFG Wisent 2 support vehicles and almost 100 Mercedes-Benz Actros 4058 6x6 tank transporters and a training and support package.

Rheinmetall Waffe Munition in Germany is supplying its 120 mm tank ammunition including latest DM11 programmable high-explosive, while Rheinmetall Denel Munition in South Africa is providing a 155 mm ammunition suite including projectiles, modular charge systems and fuzes.

The Leopard 2A7+ platform acquired by Qatar is the most advanced Leopard 2 manufactured by KMW and is optimised for operation in the high temperatures encountered in the Middle East.

In addition to the bustle-mounted air conditioning system the vehicle is also fitted with the latest armour package, roof-mounted FLW200 remote weapon station (RWS) armed with a stabilised .50 M2 HB machine gun, additional external turret stowage and a 17 kW auxiliary power unit mounted internally at the rear of the hull on the right side.

The final drives have been modified to provide more torque when operating in a desert environment, although this has reduced the top speed from 72 km/h to 68 km/h.

The baseline hull and turret structures for the Leopard 2A7+ are manufactured in Greece with the turret being sent to the KMW facility In Kassel where it is completed with all electric gun control equipment, computerised fire-control system, commanders and gunners stabilised sighting systems and armament.

The complete turret is then sent to the main KMW production and integration facility in Munich where it is mated with the hull.
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http://www.janes.com/article/64957/qatar-takes-delivery-of-leopard-2a7-mbts
A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.

-- Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.

dudge

Citaat van: Zeewier op 24/04/2013 | 11:55 uur
Ja vast. Omdat er alle reden toe is deze aankoop te argwanen. Qatar is een land van maar 50 bij 150 kilometer, enkel zand en lukraak hier en daar wat steden op de zandvlakte. Het Qatarese leger had zeer antieke tanks en dan is het logisch ze eens te vernieuwen. Maar het type en (voor het land) grote aantal bestelde tanks doet iedereen verbazen. Het is in aantal een verdubbeling.

Nouja, als je de tank ziet als ruggegraat van je landoptreden, laten we eerlijk zijn, 62 Leopards is helemaal niet zoveel, dat is meer de perceptie die we inmiddels in Europa gewend zijn. Het gaat om een aantal waarmee je effectief op kunt treden, en dan is 30 tanks gewoon erg weinig, en kom je ook als kleiner land aan een groter aantal.

Zeewier

Citaat van: Harald op 23/04/2013 | 19:34 uur
Zal dit weer een nieuwe discussie gegeven binnen de Duitse politiek ?? .... of de Nederlandse ?
Ja vast. Omdat er alle reden toe is deze aankoop te argwanen. Qatar is een land van maar 50 bij 150 kilometer, enkel zand en lukraak hier en daar wat steden op de zandvlakte. Het Qatarese leger had zeer antieke tanks en dan is het logisch ze eens te vernieuwen. Maar het type en (voor het land) grote aantal bestelde tanks doet iedereen verbazen. Het is in aantal een verdubbeling.

Harald

 
The €1.9bn sale to Qatar of Leopard 2A7 tanks and PzH self-propelled guns is raising eyebrows in Germany, where the vehicles are made, because of the emirate's record.

Zal dit weer een nieuwe discussie gegeven binnen de Duitse politiek ?? .... of de Nederlandse ?

German Firm Arms Qatar with Tanks

(Source: Deutsche Welle German radio; issued April 21, 2013)
 
German arms manufacturer Kraus-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) has just closed a billion dollar deal with Qatar that was five years in the making. On Thursday (18.04.2013), the Munich-based company announced that it signed a contract to deliver 62 Leopard 2 tanks and 24 self-propelled howitzers to the emirate. The price for the arms: roughly 1.9 billion euros ($2.48 billion).

Before the deal, Qatar owned old tanks and artillery from France and South Africa, according to KMW. Now the country wants to scrap the old weapons and modernize its 8,500-man army with the German manufacturer's new weapon systems. As reported vaguely by news agencies, armament experts say Qatar wants to be prepared for a possible conflict with Iran. That sounds convincing to political scientist and Middle East expert Werner Ruf.

"One reason is definitely that Qatar is among the nations in the Gulf who consider Iran a real threat, and who want to arm themselves against that threat," he told DW.

What is the armament for?

But one of the most important factors in such large weapons deals is money, Ruf said.

"Weapons are the goods that elicit the highest sums of bribery," he said. "That makes for great earnings on the side for the person in charge of choosing the weapons."

Qatar expert and political scientist Hamadi El-Aouni from the University of Berlin said he thinks the Gulf state wants the tanks to support friendly groups in other countries.

"It's not impossible that that these weapons will be shipped off somewhere," he told DW. "I assume toward Syria, via Turkey. Or possibly Lebanon."

El-Aouni said he not believe Qatar is purchasing the weapons to protect itself from Iran. Home to a large US Air Force base, he said the United States would protect Qatar if it came to a confrontation with Iran.

Limited rights

The opposition parties in Germany heavily criticize the arms deal with Qatar. They point to the country's autocratic government and lack of respect for human rights. Ruf and El-Aouni agreed with this assessment. The Arab news channel Al Jazeera in Qatar once stood for independent reporting and free access to news, but today its broadcasts are mostly filled with foreign propaganda, Ruf added.

There is also no opposition allowed in Qatar, El-Aouni said: "With very few exceptions, there is no freedom of expression. The emir and his family, as well as Qatar's government, remain off-limits." Qatar might not be a visible police state, but there are always secret observers watching you, El-Aouni added.

The fact that Qatar supported the rebels during many of the Arab Spring conflicts doesn't mean that the country whole-heartedly supports democracy. They saw their own interests at stake, according to El-Aouni.

"Qatar hasn't support the young people's revolution so that democracies could rise in countries like Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Qatar just assumed that the revolution would eventually lead to Islamist states and an Islamist community," he said, adding that the country only held up a smoke screen of democracy.

That pseudo-democracy became visible in Qatar's approach to foreign policy, Ruf said.

"The way they reacted to the uprising in Bahrain definitely gave them away," he said. "While Al Jazeera praised the Arab Spring movement, the government sent tanks to Bahrain to support Saudi Arabia's course of action: smothering the Bahrain uprising in blood."

The West looks the other way

Ruf said political and strategic reasons were behind the West's decision not to criticize the situation in Qatar more openly.

"I believe that there's a trend toward a new international order behind all this," he said. "The US can't do everything they want anymore. They are moving their military power to the Pacific and are putting together a new security power in the Gulf region."

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, are the new powers, according to Ruf.These countries in turn work to secure their power by trying to make Arab nations, specifically those of the Arab Spring, more Islamist.

"You can see this in Egypt, and also in Tunisia, where huge amounts of money are spent to help the Islamists, and where this money is used to recruit thousands of fighters for the conflicts in Syria and Mali," Ruf said, adding that human rights and democracy don't have roles to play.

He added that Germany's behavior is hypocritical, too: when Islamists march into Mali, everyone condemns it. "But at the root of all that, where human rights are abused systematically, every day, such as in Qatar and Saudi Arabia above all, the West just looks the other way."

Ruf quoted German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle as proof for legitimization of authoritarian Gulf states. He said Westerwelle said that Saudi Arabia was an anchor of stability and that Qatar helped hold that anchor down.

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/144485/german-arms-to-qatar-makes-waves.html

Ace1

Citaat van: IPA NG op 23/04/2013 | 16:13 uur
Men betaalt hier 40 miljoen voor één tank!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product4464.html

Griekenland kocht hun moderne 2A6HEL voor nog geen 6 miljoen per stuk!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product1461.html

Kan ik hier uit afleiden dat een 2A7 5 keer zo duur is als een opgeleukte 2A6?


IPA NG heb je er rekening meegehouden dat Qatar misschien wel de ontwikkelingskosten van de 2A7 betaalt?


dudge

Citaat van: IPA NG op 23/04/2013 | 16:13 uur
Men betaalt hier 40 miljoen voor één tank!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product4464.html

Griekenland kocht hun moderne 2A6HEL voor nog geen 6 miljoen per stuk!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product1461.html

Kan ik hier uit afleiden dat een 2A7 5 keer zo duur is als een opgeleukte 2A6?

Ter vergelijking, één PzH betalen ze in Qatar nog geen 7 miljoen voor.
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product237.html
(Net zo duur als een CEASAR dus... Domme Denen!)

Ik vermoed dat er iets meer in het contract zit. Onder meer reserve delen en munitie.

Overigens betaalde de Grieken bij mijn weten meer, namenlijk 8 miljoen per tank, met 2 miljoen aan bijkomende kosten.
http://www.greekembassy.org/embassy/Content/en/Article.aspx?office=2&folder=345&article=11312

En dat was voor de A6, tien jaar geleden. Inflatie meegerekend kom je dan nu op zo'n €15 miljoen all incl. per MBT. Volgens jouw bron kost het voertuig ze €29miljoen ps. Maar dan is het de vraag hoeveel duurder een A7 is, en wat er dus verder in het contract zit. Ze zullen een fikse munitievoorraad en reservedelen voorraad aanleggen. Daarnaast zullen simulatoren, opleiding e.d. gekocht worden.


IPA NG

#5
Men betaalt hier 40 miljoen voor één tank!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product4464.html

Griekenland kocht hun moderne 2A6HEL voor nog geen 6 miljoen per stuk!
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product1461.html

Kan ik hier uit afleiden dat een 2A7 5 keer zo duur is als een opgeleukte 2A6?

Ter vergelijking, één PzH betalen ze in Qatar nog geen 7 miljoen voor.
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product237.html
(Net zo duur als een CEASAR dus... Domme Denen!)
Militaire strategie is van groot belang voor een land. Het is de oorzaak van leven of dood; het is de weg naar overleven of vernietiging en moet worden onderzocht. --Sun Tzu


IPA NG

Militaire strategie is van groot belang voor een land. Het is de oorzaak van leven of dood; het is de weg naar overleven of vernietiging en moet worden onderzocht. --Sun Tzu

Mourning

#2
... schande! Wat zouden onze parlementariers daar wel niet van vinden? Dit past niet binnen het Europese beleid m.b.t. de verkoop van militair materiaal aan landen waar de mensenrechten niet top notch zijn.  Ik EIS kamervragen!....  







:devil:
"The only thing necessary for Evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"- Edmund Burke
"War is the continuation of politics by all other means", Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege/On War (1830).

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Qatar buys German tanks in $2.5 billion deal

Germany has boosted its drive to expand arms sales across the Middle East with a $2.5 billion deal to sell Qatar advanced Leopard tanks and self-propelled guns.

Published: April 22, 2013 at 1:01 PM

DOHA, Qatar, April 22 (UPI) -- Germany has boosted its high-powered drive to expand arms sales across the Middle East with a $2.5 billion deal to sell Qatar advanced Leopard tanks and self-propelled guns.

The weapons systems, built by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall, will replace Qatar's aging French tanks and South African artillery.

The German deal emerged as the United States announced a $10 billion plans to provide Israel and two gulf states, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with advanced aircraft, missiles, radars and aerial tankers.

The Qatar deal comes amid German negotiations to sell 270 Leopards and armored personnel carriers to Saudi Arabia, warships and armored cars to Algeria and submarines to Egypt.

The United Arab Emirates, a military heavyweight in the Persian Gulf, has bought German weapons systems worth $1.57 billion in the last three years.

Rheinmetall hasn't only sold the Emirates 27mm light naval gun systems but has helped build the country's first munitions factory under its drive to develop an indigenous arms industry.

Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, published in Munich, reported in February that German defense companies sold weapons worth $1.88 billion in the gulf in 2012.

In March, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which monitors global arms sales, placed Germany as the world's No. 3 arms exporter after the United States and Russia.

The Qatar deal involves 62 Leopard 2A7+ tanks with 120mm smooth bore main guns and 24 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers.

The 63-ton Leopard is built by Munich-based Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmBH. Rheinmetall of Dusseldorf provides the gun. They jointly produce the PzH 2000.

The arms exports mark a major shift in Germany foreign policy over the last few years by the coalition government of Chancellor Angel Merkel, made up of her center-right Christian Democratic Union and the pro-business Free Democratic Party.

In large part this was driven by the fall in defense sales in Europe and Asia because of sweeping cuts in military budgets because of a global economic downturn.

The U.S. and European defense industries all have the same problem.

But for the Germans, there was also the difficulty of shedding the country's Nazi past and their strict observance of not selling arms to conflict regions, such as the Middle East -- except, of course, to Israel.

Merkel, who began easing the restriction of arms exports a few years ago, insists she's "committed the values" of democracy and human rights.

But she's come under growing criticism for selling weapons systems to authoritarian states such as Saudi Arabia and the other absolute monarchies in the Persian Gulf, Algeria and further afield to Angola and Indonesia.

"I'm convinced that it is in our interests to enable partners to effectively participate in upholding or re-establishing security and peace in their regions," she declared at a European defense conference in September.

The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel observed: "From the standpoint of the chancellery, two problems can be solved with this doctrine.

"On the one hand, it justifies arms exports to regions like the Arabian Peninsula, which have long been controversial.

"On the other hand, it provides the government with a better justification for Germany's reluctance to get involved in conflicts overseas."

"Merkel no longer wants to be responsible for major overseas military missions. She sees Afghanistan as proof that interventions in foreign countries usually fail.

"In the chancellor's opinion, it's better and less dangerous to provide military support to one side in a given conflict," the magazine said.

Algeria, the military heavyweight of North Africa with which Berlin is increasingly engaged in arms negotiations, is a case in point.

The North African state borders two states torn by conflict, Mali and Libya -- three, if Egypt's growing crisis is taken into account -- with Algeria expected to serve as a bulwark against Islamist militancy and terrorism.

Now, a Rheinmetall subsidiary is planning to establish a factory in Algeria to assemble up to 1,200 of the company's Fuchs APCs over the next decade for Algerian forces.

Since early 2011, Berlin has approved delivery of 55 Fuchs APCs worth $248 million to Algeria, plus other military vehicles worth $374.2 million.

Der Spiegel says Merkel's government has also underwritten a $2.13 billion contract for two navy frigates to be built for Algeria by the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems of Kiel.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/04/22/Qatar-buys-German-tanks-in-25-billion-deal/UPI-36051366650079/