And here it is in CAN media - still not definite, but we now know the CF is looking at it.
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Section 29, of the Copyright Act.
Military eyes lease deal with Germany for new tanks
20 state-of-the-art vehicles could be in field by spring
CanWest News Service, via the Ottawa Citizen, 11 Feb 07, p. A4.
As it prepares to deal with another spring offensive by insurgents in Afghanistan, Canada is trying to lease
state-of-the-art Leopard tanks from Germany.
Defence sources told the Citizen yesterday that Canada
wants to lease 20 Leopard A6M tanks from the German army.
The tanks, which have improved protection against landmines and other enemy weapons,
could be shipped to Afghanistan as early as the spring if the deal is approved, sources said.
The German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, will also report tomorrow that Canada wants to buy 80 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany as well as lease the other 20 Leopards.
According to another European news agency, Agence France-Presse, the German government is looking at approving the Canadian request.
"The ministry is in principle favourable to this request," a German defence department spokesman told Agence France-Presse. In November, the Citizen broke the story of Canada's interest in buying at least 50 German Leopard 2 tanks. But at the time Defence Department officials denied the report, claiming the Canadian Forces had no interest in purchasing modern Leopards.
The Canadian military has already shipped a small number of Leopard C2s to Afghanistan. But the Canadian Forces has concerns about the level of protection those tanks can provide for their crews. In
addition, there are concerns about whether there will be enough spare parts for the older Canadian tanks, according to sources.
The proposed German deal would also include an ample supply of parts for the armoured vehicles.
A defence source said Canada's proposal to the German government, if accepted, could shave years off acquiring a more modern tank for use in Afghanistan. If Canada were to upgrade its existing Leopards it would take about two years, the source said.
A Defence Department official said yesterday that only limited information about the Canada-German Leopard proposal was available.
"No decision has been taken, but the Canadian Forces are constantly assessing their requirements for operations," said Tanya Barnes, a Canadian Defence Department spokeswoman.
In the fall, Canadian military officials sent out feelers to different countries who might have used Leopard 2s for sale. Included among those were the Netherlands and Germany. In addition, Canada wanted details about the availability of spare parts for the tanks.
Over the last year there has been a major about-face in the Canadian military's view of the usefulness of tanks.
Last fall, after originally denying that it was going to send Leopards to Afghanistan, the military confirmed the vehicles were indeed headed for that South Asia war zone.
"Tanks produce a certain amount of shock action," army commander Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said at the press conference confirming the deployment of the Leopards. "They can be extraordinarily intimidating."
In the late 1990s, the Canadian Forces spent $145 million to equip the tanks with new computers and heat-sensing equipment to improve their fighting capability.
But three years ago, Gen. Rick Hillier, then army commander, labelled the Leopards as a "millstone" around the neck of the service. Several months later Gen. Hillier wrote an article for the Citizen criticizing retired officers who wanted to keep the Leopard tanks in the army's inventory.
"Tanks are a perfect example of extremely expensive systems that sit in Canada because they are inappropriate to the operations we conduct daily around the world," Gen. Hillier wrote at the time. The general is currently the chief of the defence staff.
But as they came to grips with the war in Afghanistan, senior military leaders changed their minds and turned to the tank to provide increased firepower and protection. Last year, the army put on hold a plan to dispose of many of its tanks. However, by that point, the Defence Department had blown up, sold or given away a little less than half of the army's fleet of 114 Leopards.
At the same time the army leadership requested the Conservative government cancel a proposed plan to spend at least $700 million on the purchase of a wheeled vehicle called the Mobile Gun System. That system was being billed as a replacement for Canada's Leopards.
A copy of the government's proposed Canada First Defence Strategy, obtained by the Citizen, confirms that the Mobile Gun System will indeed be cancelled and tanks will remain in the army until at least
2016.
