Off topic: was the upgraded recond Leopard a good buy?
I suspect it was intro to SAF by Deisenroth thru someone in ST K.......... both made a big bundle!!
In my opinion, the question would have been do we need a 70 tonne tank? What is the threat scenario that requires such a heavy tank? If you say the threat scenario is PT-91s, then the question is could the Centurion meet this threat? If the conclusion is that the Centurion is now too old or not worth upgrading and the 105mm gun is not effective against the PT-91, then the answer is you have to get a more modern MBT.
So, the question is whether the Leo 2 is the right buy (or good buy). Its not the right buy because the right buy would have been the French Leclerc. It has a 3 man crew, same as the AMX-13, is a modern tank with a 120mm gun, and for the manpower short SAF, a three man crew tank is what is needed. The Leo 2 was the much cheaper buy because the Germans had a surplus of them and were practically giving them away at friendship prices. If the SAF had stopped there, then you could make a case for it being a good buy mostly due to the low acquisition cost vis a vis the quality you are getting. This base tank alone the Leo 2 A4 was good enough to defeat the PT-91. But for some stupid reason, they decided to spend a lot of money to modify the shit out it, using Disenroth's AMAP, and other new technocentric warfare gadget. It has been moded into an A5/A6 version. I can safely say that what they paid to the Germans for the original tank might have cost less then all the modifications they put into it in singapore. Until they reveal the cost, no one can say. But consider that the mods were made to only about 90 odd tanks. I can safely say that if they ask Krauss Maffei (the tank maker) to do the mods for them, it would have been a lot cheaper. KM has a production line set up to bring the German army's tanks to the newer standard and adding the Singapore batch of tanks to it would not have been that much more expensive.
But I guess someone at ST wants to give Diesenroth the business, hence they did not ask KM to do the upgrades. Its interesting that Indonesia ordered a batch of 103 Leo 2 A4s after our order, but asked Rheinmetall to do the upgrades for them in Germany. They were upgraded to the Revolution standard by among other things using Diesenroth's AMAP modular armour. Diesenroth and Rheinmetall have JV company that markets AMAP. I wonder why we did not do it this way, I am guessing it would have been a lot cheaper and more transparent. Any overseas business awarded to a publicly traded company like Rheinmetall will be reported in the business press. Its therefore convenient for SAF to hide the contract amount by having the work done in Singapore. More chances for kickbacks and corruption in the pricing.