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The Leopard 2E or Leopard 2A6E (''E'' stands for ''España'', Spanish for Spain) is a variant of the German Leopard 2 main battle tank, tailored to the requirements of the Spanish army, which acquired it as part of an armament modernization program named ''Programa Coraza'', or Program Breastplate. The acquisition program for the Leopard 2E began in 1994, five years after the cancellation of the Lince tank program that culminated in an agreement to transfer 108 Leopard 2A4s to the Spanish army in 1998 and started the local production of the Leopard 2E in December 2003. Despite postponement of production owing to the 2003 merger between Santa Bárbara Sistemas and General Dynamics, and continued fabrication issues between 2006 and 2007, 219 Leopard 2Es have been delivered to the Spanish army. The Leopard 2E is a major improvement over the M60 Patton tank, which it replaced in Spain's mechanized and armored units. Its development represented a total of 2.6 million man-hours worth of work, 9,600 of them in Germany, at a total cost of 2.4 billion euros. This makes it one of the most expensive Leopard 2s built. Indigenous production amounted to 60% and the vehicles were assembled locally at Sevilla by Santa Bárbara Sistemas. It has thicker armor on the turret and glacis plate than the German Leopard 2A6, and uses a Spanish-designed tank command and control system, similar to the one fitted in German Leopard 2s. The Leopard 2E is expected to remain in service until 2025. == Spanish armor programs 1987–93 == By 1987, the Spanish army was equipped with 299 French-designed AMX-30Es, assembled by Santa Bárbara Sistemas,〔de Mazarrasa, ''Carro de Combate AMX-30E'', p. 60〕 and 552 American M47 and M48 Patton tanks.〔Manrique and Molina, ''La Brunete'', pp. 69–74〕 The AMX-30Es were put into service in 1970,〔de Mazarrasa, ''Carro de Combate AMX-30E'', p. 58〕 while the latter went into service in the mid-1950s.〔Zaloga, ''The M47 and M48 Patton Tanks'', pp. 36–37〕 Although Spain's M47s and M48s were modernized to M47Es and M48Es, bringing them to near equivalence with the M60 Patton tank,〔Manrique and Molina, ''La Brunete'', p. 73〕 the Spanish army considered them antiquated.〔Gonzáles, ''España negocia la adquisición de hasta 500 carros de combate que serán retirados de Centroeuropa'', El País〕 In 1984, when deciding to replace its Patton tanks, the Spanish government declared its intention to produce a whole new main battle tank locally, since known as the Lince.〔El País, ''Cinco empresas compiten para cofabricar un carro de combate en España''〕 Five companies expressed interest in bidding, including Krauss-Maffei in a partnership with Santa Bárbara Sistemas, GIAT with what became the Leclerc, General Dynamics with the M1 Abrams and Vickers with the Valiant.〔Yarnóz, ''El Gobierno elegirá el mes próximo el carro de combate de los noventa'', El País〕 While the M1 Abrams and Valiant bids were not accepted,〔Yarnóz, ''Serra descarta a EE UU y Reino Unido para cofabricar los nuevos carros'', El País〕 the bidding continued until 1989 when it was officially canceled.〔Yarnóz, ''España eliminará decenas de carros de combate al concluir la negociación sobre desarme en Europa'', El País〕 Instead, the Spanish government opted to replace its older Patton tanks with American M60 Patton tanks retired from Central Europe in accordance with the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.〔El País, ''El tanque de los noventa''〕 Although the Spanish army was originally to receive 532 M60 and M60A1 tanks,〔Gonzáles, ''Defensa cifra en 1.500 millones el coste de los 532 tanques estadounidenses que recibirá a partir de 1992'', El País〕 only 260 M60A3s were ultimately delivered, of which 244 were put into active service in the army.〔Military Technology, ''Europe'', p. 192〕 In the late 1980s the Spanish Ministry of Defense approved a modernization program for 150 of its AMX-30Es and a reconstruction program for the remaining 149 vehicles of this type, restoring them to their original condition.〔de Mazarrasa, ''Carro de Combate AMX-30E'', pp. 80–84〕 However, neither the M60s nor the AMX-30s were a considerable improvement over Spain's fleet of M47 and M48 Patton tanks.〔Candil, ''Spain's Armor Force Modernizes'', p. 41〕 Since the existing tank fleet did not meet the Spanish army's needs, Spain opened talks with Germany and Krauss-Maffei over the possibility of future collaboration in regards to Spain's future tank,〔Candil, ''Carros de Combate'', pp. 161–162〕 and sent a military delegation to Germany in 1994. Although the Germans offered Spain surplus Leopard 1 tanks and Soviet equipment incorporated into the German army after the reunification of Germany, the Spanish government declined these offers and pressed for the Leopard 2.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leopard 2E」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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