Tag: Ralf Ketzel

KNDS to Build Leopard 2A8 Tanks in Lithuania

Leopard 2A8 Main Battle Tank | Photo: KNDS Deutschland

Lithuania has signed an industrial cooperation agreement with KNDS, Rheinmetall and EPSO-G to establish local assembly and maintenance facilities for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks, with the first tanks assembled domestically from 2028. The Baltic country joined the Leopard 2 Common Procurement Agreement in 2024 and signed a follow-on contract later that year for 44 Leopard 2A8 tanks.

German arms firm KNDS unable to send weapons to Ukraine any time soon

A LEOPARD 2 A5 on the training grounds in Munster | Photo: KNDS

Ralf Ketzel, managing director of KNDS, manufacturer of Leopard 2 battle tanks, said,”The ability to deliver quickly is now exhausted,” adding, “Two years ago, a strategic decision should have been made that this will be a war lasting several years. Then we could deliver new material today,” in reference to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.