This should have said radar detection technology.Why Drive An Armored Vehicle? Greater Security Wherever You Are!Īrmored vehicles afford a driver, their passengers, and their cargo numerous advantages, especially when traveling in crime-ridden or politically unstable areas. An earlier version said that Freddy Versluys was renovating the tanks with radar technology. This article was amended on 23 February 2023. Now, I would very much like to see them in Ukraine.” “We took in these tanks when no one wanted them. “Everyone thinks we are making lots of money, but look around you, so far the hangar is full,” he said. With the government defence budget cuts, the army had to make decisions, and cutting older, expensive tanks was the most logical choice.”Īt the hangar, Versluys dismissed accusations made by some in Belgium that he was trying to profit from the war. “After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was simply unimaginable that there would be a second world war-style battle in Europe. “In hindsight, it is a bit too simple to say that getting rid of tanks was a mistake,” said Joe Coelmont, a senior fellow at the Royal Higher Institute for Defence and former brigadier in the Belgian army. There has been debate in Brussels about whether it was shortsighted to decommission its tanks. “It is a big shame because they are in good condition and can be prepared easily,” he said. OIP is still unable to sell its large stock of Austrian-made SK-105 light tanks, with Vienna not approving the exports. “But the price has to be fair, we are not a charity.”Īnd while Germany has lifted its ban on exporting Leopards, other hurdles remain. “We are open to all options,” Versluys said. The UK Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a British-led group that consists of 10 northern European states, has also been in touch since Germany’s announcement about its Leopards, he said. Versluys said he had recently been approached by Ukraine’s state arms exporter and importer about the possibility of buying his tanks. “These guys need a new engine, shock absorbers, the latest radar detection technology – the list goes on.” He stressed that it could take months and up to €1m in renovation costs for each tank to get them ready for use in Ukraine. “There is no point talking about prices right now because we need to check the condition of each tank and what needs to be updated,” he said. Versluys denied that the Belgian government had approached him, and said it was hard to estimate the price for which he would sell the tanks. “The talks are still on, but I’m not going to pay half a million for a tank that’s nowhere near combat-ready,” Dedonder told Belgian media. Ludivine Dedonder, Belgium’s minister of defence, last week said it had opened talks with OIP but accused the firm of trying to make a “huge profit” from the sale. ‘We are open to all options, but the price has to be fair,’ Versluys says. Belgium, which has no tanks left in its defence stock, has explored the possibility of buying back the Leopard 1s it sold to Versluys. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent unprecedented western military support to Kyiv, had already led Versluys to sell 46 M113 light armoured vehicles to the UK, which then transferred them to Ukraine as part of a military package. But the chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision last week on the Leopard 2s, which opened the floodgates for other European countries to follow suit, has opened up new possibilities. The Leopard 1, which is from the 1960s, is lighter and less powerful than the newer Leopard 2 tanks, 14 of which Germany agreed last week to send to Ukraine, but German officials have said they would still be able to compete with a Russian battle tank.įor years, Versluys was unable to sell the Leopard 1s and Gepards as German law requires approval from Berlin for the re-export of its military equipment. “But buying those decommissioned tanks was a massive gamble for us. “It was the market price because of the geopolitical situation at the time,” he said. ![]() In one of Versluys’s bigger deals, he bought 50 Leopard 1 tanks that the Belgian government decommissioned in 2014 for €37,000 each (about £29,600). The defence cuts were accelerated by the 2008 economic crisis, and by 2014, the year Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea, European military spending had reached a historic low. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, European nations have sought to replace some of the heavy and costly-to-maintain cold war-era tanks with the lighter vehicles needed for shorter peacekeeping missions around the world. Versluys bought up most of his current stock over the last two decades, acquiring the tanks directly from European governments cutting their defence spending. Walking Tournai’s narrow, cobblestoned back streets and boulevards, it is hard to imagine that such weapons are only a 15-minute walk away. Austrian-flagged hardware in the OIP hangar.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |