German Firm Wins Contract To Supply Tanks To Qatar

German defence firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) won a contract to supply more than 50 Leopard 2 tanks and about 20 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers to Qatar, a defence source told Reuters on Thursday.

Arms exports are a sensitive issue in Germany given the country’s Nazi past and the role arms makers like Krupp played in fuelling 19th and 20th century wars.

The source said KMW beat a French competitor to the contract. It did not say who that competitor was or what the contract is worth.

The tanks and howitzers are made by KMW in collaboration with German industrial group Rheinmetall.

In July, German magazine Spiegel had reported that Qatar wanted to buy up to 200 Leopard tanks with a potential value of up to 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion).