What is the Main battle tank, the Italian army's new tank and who could build it
The tank emerged as an important strategic weapon with the war in Ukraine, after the relevance of land armaments had already been rediscovered in the war in Iraq (2003-2011).
4' min read
Key points
4' min read
There is a battle over the 'main battle tank', the heavy tank for the Italian Army that is to replace the old Ariete, which entered service almost 30 years ago. The tank established itself as an important strategic weapon with the war in Ukraine, after the relevance of land armaments had already been rediscovered in the war in Iraq (2003-2011). As a result, many armed forces have put in place programmes to rejuvenate their fleets of war crawlers that date back several decades.
8 billion needed
.Even Italy, which for many years allocated a large part of the defence budget mainly to arms purchases for the air force and navy, skimping on resources for the army, has budgeted a first part of the sum needed to buy new tanks. The estimated financial requirement to buy almost 400 heavy tanks, including armoured fighting vehicles and special vehicles, is eight billion euro over a period of several years, but only half of the sum has already been financed. The new Italian tank is expected to enter service in 2035, 40 years after the Ariete.
The role of Oto Melara
.Domestic industry does not have the capabilities to build the army's future Mbt. Oto Melara, the La Spezia-based company of the former Finmeccanica (now Leonardo) that produces land armaments, built the Ariete, while today its specialisation is turrets. Hence the need for Leonardo to seek a foreign partner to jointly produce the vehicles to be offered in the tender to be launched by the Army.
The negotiations with Knds
.For some time now, two large European groups have been interested in the Italian maxi-order. One is Knds, the Amsterdam-based holding company that controls the French company Nexter, manufacturer of the Leclerc tanks used by the French Armée, and the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (Kmw), manufacturer of the Leopard, the 'bestseller' tank, the most popular in Europe, sold to 18 countries.
The Profumo management
.Under Leonardo's previous management, when the managing director was Alessandro Profumo until 13 months ago, the group was willing to sell a share in Oto Melara (at least 49%) to Knds. This would have been the first step towards the participation, in pole position, in the multi-billion dollar order for the army.
