On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, Canada’s Defence Materiel administration announced on its LinkedIn profile that the first Leopard 2A4 tank had arrived at the Regional Maintenance Centre in Nisku, near Edmonton, Alberta, on February 6, under the agreement signed with German company KNDS Deutschland on September 12, 2024.
Photo: Defence Materiel/Matériel de défense via LinkedIn
“On February 6, 2025, the Regional Maintenance Centre in Nisku, Alberta, began operations with the arrival of the first Leopard 2A4 for maintenance. This marks an important step in supporting Canada’s Leopard 2 fleet.
As part of a long-term contract with KNDS Deutschland GmbH & Co. (KNDS), this new centre will provide inspections and repairs, helping reduce the workload for Canadian Armed Forces technicians and maintain fleet readiness.
In the coming months, KNDS and the Directorate Armament Sustainment Project Management 4 will expand operations, completing F4+ inspections and six major repairs per year.
The arrival of the first Leopard 2A4 puts this maintenance program into action, ensuring Canada’s military equipment remains mission-ready,” – states Defence Materiel/Matériel de défense.
Under last year’s contract worth over 600 million EUR with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), KNDS Deutschland is to provide continued support services for the operation of Leopard 2A4 and Leopard 2A6 tanks, their upgraded variants, as well as accompanying support vehicles.
The contract includes fleet management of the tanks and support vehicles, delivery of spare parts, and comprehensive vehicle repairs. Additionally, KNDS Deutschland was commissioned to take over full technical support operations in Canada, which also involved the construction of the Regional Maintenance Centre in question. The project is expected to maintain 295 jobs and increase Canada’s GDP by 32.5 million CAD in its initial phase.
The contract, which began in September 2024, is set to run through March 2031, with an option to extend for an additional five years until March 2036. The work will be carried out by KNDS Canada Inc., a subsidiary based in Ottawa, established specifically for this project. If the option is exercised, the total value of the contract will rise to 2 billion CAD.
It is worth noting that Canada has delivered 8 Leopard 2A4 tanks, one Bergepanzer 3 Büffel armored recovery vehicle, and 5,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Ukraine. On January 25, 2024, unconfirmed reports emerged suggesting that at least three upgraded Leopard 2A6M CAN tanks had also been transferred, though no credible sources have confirmed this information to date.
Before last year’s deliveries of tanks to Ukraine, the Canadian Army operated 78 Leopard 2A4/2A4M CAN and Leopard 2A6M tanks. Of these, 15 Leopard 2A4CAN tanks were deployed to Latvia as part of a company-level unit within NATO’s Multinational Brigade Latvia (MNB-LVA), where Canada serves as the framework nation.
Canada originally acquired 80 Leopard 2A4 tanks from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2007. Twenty of them were upgraded to the 2A4M CAN standard, featuring reinforced hull-bottom armor for protection against anti-tank mines, modular add-on armor, and other modifications. Another 42 tanks were designated for training purposes. Separately, 20 Leopard 2A6 tanks were also purchased from the Netherlands in December 2007 and upgraded to the 2A6M CAN configuration. The accompanying fleet of 29 support vehicles includes WiSENT 2 armored engineering vehicles, designated as Leopard 2AEV CAN, and the aforementioned Bergepanzer 3 Büffel armored recovery vehicles, designated as Leopard 2ARV CAN.