Finland is to buy a total of 124 used German Leopard 2A4 battlefield tanks, and will pay around EUR 120 million for them. The precise number of tanks and the overall cost of the acquisition were announced on Tuesday when the deal was signed in Helsinki.

   

The actual cost of a single tank is rather less than EUR 1 million, as the deal also includes spare parts, simulators, training for permanent staff of the Finnish Defence Forces, and the transport of the vehicles from Germany to Finland.

   

Ever since the spring, when the purchase was first announced, the FDF top-brass has been enthusing over the attractiveness of the deal, and the Chief of Defence Admiral Juhani Kaskeala claimed in February that the tanks were costing "several times less" than Sweden, Norway, or Austria had paid for theirs.

   

The Minister of Defence Jan-Erik Enestam (Swedish People's Party) stressed on Tuesday the cooperative prospects opened up by the deal, as since the other Nordic countries are using the same equipment it will allow for joint programmes in maintenance, training, and modernisation. Finland plans to keep the Leopard tanks in service until 2030.