With more than a decade of service in sunny Portugal, the Army has been intending to upgrade its Leopard tanks for a few years now. The Leopard 2A6 PRT, as it will be known post-MLU (Mid-Life Update), will be the 32nd Leopard variant since its entrance into service with the Bundeswehr in 1979, and while there may be some doubts on whether it will or not see the light of day, this article aims to list what exactly is the plan for the German cat.
In 2008 Portugal signed a deal with the Netherlands for the purchase of 37 Leopard 2A6NL, plus a Leopard 2 driver training tank, a 39th Leopard that would be delivered dismantled and serve as spare parts, 450 rounds of DM12A1 HEAT-T (High Explosive Anti-Tank Tracer), maintenance tools, documentation, and training (1) in a deal worth 71 million euros (2), and while there was an option for the further 24 tanks for 45 million euros, this never went forward.
The Portuguese Army had thus received a significant capability boost, at the time when it operated 92 American M60A3 TTS tanks, with the Leopard it was made a peer to its allies in terms of pure tank capabilities, arguably for the first time since the days of the M47 Patton in the 1950s.
Across its years of service in Portugal, the Leopard has suffered some in-house changes, they are above all the integration of the Portuguese ER 525 radio (3) from EID’s GRC-525 family and the installment of BMS-C2, A Battlefield Management System from the Portuguese company CriticalSoftware.
As the years progressed it began to be clear that a modernization was needed for these second-hand tanks. Breakdowns started to appear and as time passed, some components were both turning obsolete and outright replaced in the production line by a newer version. The turret was the cause of most of the issues, the E-WNA (Eletric Gun System) (4) registers the biggest amount of faults suffering from overheating, most electronic components are also analogue and as they are no longer produced this has made the mission of sourcing spare parts increasingly difficult, the 2A6’s chassis also suffers from obsolescence problems, as for example, the fire extinguisher system is no longer made and of course it has became harder to repair any faults that may appear.
With this in mind, an MLU was designed and planned under the Military Programming Law (MPL), but while it was originally intended to be executed between 2019 and 2024, this was postponed upon the revision of the MPL in 2019 to 2026-30. This delay ended up causing another problem, as per the Report on the Implementation of the Military Programme Law, reported to the year of 2020, the postponement of the Leopard’s MLU led to a reduction of the operational rate of the fleet (5).
The planning stage for the MLU followed three guidelines, the increase in the operational availability and safety of the tanks, the logistical issues associated with the MLU and the financial component. With this in mind seven upgrades have been selected and with the following priority (6):
1- Basis Configuration: The replacement of the E-WNA’s components for digital ones, including the replacement of the Fire Control System analogue system and the Commander’s System Control Unit (CSCU).
2- AC-System Turret: The installation of a cooling system in order to allow the circulation of air in the E-WNA compartment and prevent overheating.
3- UltraCaps: The Leopard 2A6’s electric system is made up of eight batteries that supply a total of 24V and 440Ah, but despite their protection with fuses and voltage regulators they have failed several times and allow damage to the turret’s components to happen. The UltraCaps system is therefore needed to protect the turret’s electronics.
4- Auxiliary Power Unit: The addition of an APU allows tankers to turret and its electronics while stationary and without the need of having the engine running.
5- Fire Extinguisher System: The current system on the Portuguese Leopard is marked by obsolescence, as some components are no longer made and by the fact that its restricted to the engine area. The MLU therefore aims to modernize the current system and to extend the protection to the crew.
6- Front and Rear driver sights: Currently the Leopard 2A6 driver has a front camera with night vision and a rear one that can only be used during daylight. The MLU plans to add Hensoldt’s Spectus driver sight system at the front and back.
7- Gunner and Commander sights: The Leopard 2A6 currently uses the EMES 15 A2 for the gunner and the PERI R17 A2 for the commander, under the MLU these will be replaced by the EMES 15 A3 ATTICA and the PERI R17 A3 ATTICA respectively.
Overall when it comes to these parameters the Leopard 2A6 PRT would be on par with both the Spanish Leopard 2E and the German 2A7.
However the PRT has neither additional armor nor Rheinmetall’s new L/55 A1 gun, present in the 2E, A7 and other recent Leopard 2 variants.
According to Janes, Portugal has also considered adding an active protection system to its Leopard’s, but no further development of this story seems to have been made public since 2021 (7)
When it comes to budgets, the initial budget for the MLU was 46 million euros, while under the new Military Programming Law 2023-43, which came into effect in 2023, the budget was increased to 55.4 million euros per Vítor Barreira at Twitter/X (8). It’s also important to remember that since 2023 Portugal no longer operates 37 Leopard 2A6 tanks as it donated 3 of them to Ukraine.
As an end note I would like to proclaim my gratitude to two people, first to Jeff, writer here at Defense Archives and who you may know from Twitter/X as @Jeff21461, his help was very appreciated in the making of the original thread about the Leopard 2A6 PRT, and he was also kind enough to make the chart comparing the PRT’s MLU to the base A6, 2E and A7. And lastly to Moritz who kindly allowed me to write for Defense Archives, all my gratitude to him and the rest of the team.
Sources:
(1) https://comum.rcaap.pt/handle/10400.26/8900?locale=pt_PT
(3) https://www.operacional.pt/um-dia-no-grupo-de-carros-de-combate/
(4) The German Leopard 2A6 Main Battle Tank, Ralph Zwilling, Tankograd Publishing
(5) https://www.parlamento.pt/sites/COM/XIVLeg/3CDN/Paginas/RelatoriosActividade.aspx
(6) Atoleiros, Revista Militar da Brigada Mecanizada; page 111-116
(8) https://x.com/Defence360/status/1785716997096939947
The German Leopard 2A6 Main Battle Tank in action and variants 2A6A1/2A6M/2A6MA1/2A6M+ Ralph Zwilling, Tankograd Publishing
https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2017/03/leopard-2-projects.html
https://www.hensoldt.net/products/optronics/spectus-drivers-sight-system
https://www.hensoldt.net/products/optronics/retrofits-and-upgrades-for-mbts
https://www.hensoldt.net/products/optronics/peri-rtwl-digital