We continue by going backwards again first...
FINLAND: There is an issue here besides a minor name change to Finland's
UNIT 021 LEOPARD 2A6, it should be renamed as
LEOPARD 2A6FIN.
That was the easy part, it turns out the Finn's bought those tanks from the
NETHERLANDS, I reference
UNIT 037 LEOPARD 2NLA6. Part of the agreement was, that those tanks were to be
further upgraded from the
2NLA6 standard
prior to Finland taking delivery of them.
At a
minimum Finland's
UNIT 021 in
operational capabilities should be an
exact copy of the Netherland's
UNIT 037.
It also appears from the next that the
START should be either
APR/or JUN
2016.
I quote "Colonel Rainer Peltoniemi, commander of the Häme Armoured Battalion, added that the Finnish Army had
begun training with the
Leopard 2A6 very quickly,
starting in 2016. “It has been excellent to see how these tanks were introduced into
operational use in such a short time,” Peltoniemi said,..."
This is why I favored
APR over JUN, they've already operated the LEOPARD's for years and are a
highly professional service.
What is
unknown to me at this time is simply, were there any other combat related upgrades made to those tanks besides what's listed (
NON-STARTERS) in the "
teaser" article from
JANE's?
I'll look further into this but, I stand by the matching/merging of those units as
essentially direct copies at this time.
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/n...rd-2a6fin-mbts
Regards,
Pat
