Italy To Manufacture Leopard 2A8 Main Battle Tanks
The Italian Ministry of Defense has sent an official request for securing the financing for the domestic production line of the newest Leopard 2A8-IT. The Main Battle Tank built under license from Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann would be the newest and most advanced vehicle in the Italian Army’s inventory and is planned to be introduced by the end of this decade. The 2A8-IT will serve alongside the Ariete variants currently in Italian service, which Italy also plans to update.
The Italian government started the initial talks on the potential purchase of a new MBT in early 2023, following the trend seen among several European countries. In July 2023 the Italian Ministry of Defense under-secretary, Isabella Rauti, outlined the planned procurement of the Leopard 2A8 MBTs. In December 2023, KNDS partnered with Leonardo to work on a number of Italy’s ground combat vehicle requirements, including procurement of the Leopard 2.
The Leopard 2A8-IT will be a domestically adapted version of the A8 variant. The tank will be equipped with a Trophy HV active protection system (APS) like the Leopard 2 A7A1. Its main armament will consist of a 120mm smooth-bore Rh-120/L55A1 gun. The Leopard 2 A8 will also receive modernized multi-layered non-explosive reactive armor and improved turret top armor. The A8 is also anticipated to have improved sensors and electronics. Italy wants to obtain 132 Leopard 2 A8-ITs along with 140 support vehicles including engineering and bridging assets. The tanks will be produced in the La Spezia factory, currently under construction.
The production, implementation, and exploitation cost of the Leopard 2 A8 in Italian service is estimated at 8.3 billion Euros spent in a perspective of 15 years. The massive expenditure will, however, provide Italian industry with the know-how and ready solutions for future projects, especially in terms of the AICS program.
Besides Italy, both Norway and Germany began procurement of the Leopard 2 A8 MBT. The Bundeswehr is willing to obtain more than 120 vehicles while Norway is preparing to equip a single battalion in the newest variant of the tank (54 MBTs in total). 2 A8-IT procurement negotiations with Lithuania and Czechia are also reportedly underway. This fares well in terms of perspective of future sales for KMW as other countries begin to seek modern armored vehicles.