Germany seeks to buy mothballed Swiss Leopard 2 tanks

BERLIN (AP) — The Swiss government says Germany wants to buy mothballed Leopard 2 battle tanks from Switzerland to replace tanks that Berlin and its Western allies are sending to Ukraine. The Swiss Defense Ministry said Friday that Germany’s defense and economy ministers wrote on Feb. 23 to Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd, setting out German manufacturer Rheinmetall’s interest in buying Leopard 2 tanks that the Swiss army doesn’t plan to put back into service. They assured Amherd that the tanks, if bought, wouldn’t be sent to Ukraine and would be used by Germany or its NATO and European partners to fill the gaps in their own stocks created by their donations of tanks to Kyiv and to improve the availability of replacement parts.