High-tech military assets continuously arrive in Tata

The minister emphasized that all modern armed forces need tracked, armoured multipurpose engineering vehicles with high-level protective capabilities. The Wisent 2 meets every requirement, as the recovery vehicle, which is built on the chassis of a Leopard 2 main battle tank, is capable of recovering and towing damaged and stuck combat vehicles – moreover, it can also be fitted with a crane as well as excavator and mine plowing equipment.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that besides the Wisent 2, another Leopard 2A7HU main battle tank tailored to meet Hungarian needs had also arrived on Wednesday, which brings to 31 the number of Leopards commissioned in the “vitéz Tarczay Ervin” Tank Battalion of the armoured brigade. According to plans, a week from now, the German manufacturer will deliver another two Leopards alongside the Wisent 2 to Tata. Speaking about the details of the engineer vehicle, the minister of defence said that the Wisent 2 had been developed by the German military vehicle manufacturing company Flensburger Fahrzeugbau GmbH.

Thanks to its modular structure, the system built on the Leopard 2 chassis can be converted from the tank recovery variant to an armoured tracked engineer vehicle in five hours. Its crane is capable of lifting loads up to 32 tons, so it can help large-volume battle damage repair (BDR) processes such as engine replacements.

In the spirit of strengthening the land forces of the Hungarian Defence Forces, in December 2018 the Ministry of Defence signed an agreement with KNDS Deutschland Group (back then Krauss-Maffei Wegmann about the procurement of 44 Leopards and 24 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers.

Based on the agreement, tracked recovery and bridge-layer vehicles are also to be delivered to the Hungarian Defence Forces. Until 2028, besides main battle tanks meeting the requirements of 21st century warfare, Hungary will receive altogether 5 Wisent 2HU recovery vehicles and 3 Leguan 2HU Armoured Bridge Layers (ABL). These assets will make the renewing armour branch complete – noted the minister of defence, adding that the continuously arriving high-tech assets serve the security of the Hungarian people, and further build the deterrence capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces.

Press release of the Ministry of Defence