On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, KNDS Deutschland, part of the German-French joint venture KNDS, announced the signing of an 80 million contract EUR with the Directorate of Material Resources of the Belgian Ministry of Defence for the delivery to the Belgian Land Forces (Landmacht) of a batch of Leguan mobile bridges mounted on 10×10 truck chassis, including additional bridge spans.
Photo: KNDS Deutschland
The contract covers eight systems along with 17 bridge spans with a total length of 26 meters, as well as an additional logistics package and special tools.
The Leguan system allows the deployment of a single span 26 meters long and 12 meters wide, or two spans each 14 meters long with a combined width of 24 meters. The bridge enables the crossing of military equipment up to load class MLC 80 (approximately 70–73 tonnes for tracked vehicles and 83–85 tonnes for wheeled vehicles). The automated deployment system allows the crossing to be emplaced in 5–6 minutes, depending on its length, while bridge recovery takes 7–8 minutes. The system is operated by a single person.
Leguan bridges have been delivered to the armed forces of a total of 22 countries on various chassis, including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Greece, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Norway, Hungary, and the United States (as the M104 Wolverine, where they are being replaced by the M1074 JAB). Croatia and Portugal have also expressed interest in procurement.
In the past, the 11th Engineer Battalion (11 Bataljon Genie) based in the Zwijndrecht garrison (in the Flemish Region, Antwerp Province, Antwerp District) operated nine Leguan mobile bridges mounted on Leopard 1BE tank chassis. They remained on inventory until 2021, despite the Leopard 1A5BE tanks having been withdrawn in 2014. Of the 50 tanks originally operated, 31 were repurchased in 2023 by the United Kingdom from OIP Land Systems and transferred to Ukraine (Belgium additionally supplied a single tank fitted with the unmanned Cockerill 3105 turret – ed.).
See also: