FINNISH LEOPARDS - THE FINNISH ARMY LEOPARD 2 A4 M

In 2002 Finnish requirements resulted in a contract to buy 124 Leopard 2 A4 MBTs from German military reserve stocks. Not all the vehicles were scheduled for use as MBTs. Only a batch of one hundred vehicles was assigned to the MBT role, with twelve more being used as a spare-parts reservoir. Six vehicles were to be converted to the bridge-laying role (Leopard 2L), and another six were to be converted into armoured engineer / mine breaching vehicles (Leopard 2R). All in all, Finland bought a total of 139 Leopard 2 A4s from the first to sixth production batches. This publication shows the three Finnish Leopard 2 variants, the 2 A4 main battle tank, the 2R armoured engineer vehicle (mine breacher) and the 2L bridge laying tank in action, detail and in many hitherto unpublished photographs.