9 June 2007 - Issue : 733
The first of 66 German Leopard tanks has arrived in Singapore to replace some of the armed forces' light tanks, which are more than 40 years old, a newspaper reported on June 8, cited by Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). The main battle tank is undergoing "local familiarisation trials," the defence ministry told The Straits Times.
The ministry announced in December that it planned to purchase the 66 refurbished Leopard 2A4s and put them into service around the middle of 2008. The Leopard is about three times heavier than the old SM1 light tanks. It tips the scale at 55 tonnes and is powerful enough to gun down targets three kilometres away.
The main weapon is the German Rheinmetall L44 120-millimetre gun, which also arms tanks in Australia and the United States. About 3,000 of these battlefield heavyweights are currently in service in 12 countries.