Papperger a KF51-ről:
"If you go to the next page, you see the picture of the KF51, our Panther that we
presented the first time at the Eurosatory. Some information for you about that:
what is the reason that Rheinmetall made it? First of all, it's a very long time that
we need for the main ground combat system, and if the main ground combat
system will be implemented between ‘35 to ‘40 or maybe later than ‘40, we think
there is an in-between period where Europe needs more new main battle tanks.
So we created a main battle tank which is a very high effective weapon, so we
integrated the 130mm Future Gun System, which is at the moment only available
for Rheinmetall. We have an excellent protection, so this is side protection and
this is top attack protection, and we have really a survival concept which
implements 360 degrees active, could be reactive and also passive protection. It is
fully digitized, and the digitization helps us a lot for the connectivity between tank
to tank, between main battle tank to other tanks and also between the soldiers
and the tank, which at the moment brings our soldiers home safely, which is the
most important thing.
So what is the potential over the next years of this main battle tank? And I think
we could be successful in some countries, and we offer this to all users in Europe
at the moment two weeks ago, and there is a potential of minimum some 100, but
maybe over the next ten years a potential of about 1,000 main battle tanks. This is
the need where we want to go into competition with our other competitors."
I can only tell you at the moment the feedback that I get from the market side. The
feedback from the market side is a very positive one. They said, okay, wow, it’s
great to have all these technologies inside. And the other thing is about the
pricing, and they said on the pricing side, this Panther with all the features that we
have should not be more expensive than at the moment the Leopard 2A7. It
should have a lower price than that.
How is it possible? It is possible with other technologies, with other sub-deliverers,
where we have insight there for the main components. We are really able to
reduce the costs a lot.
So now coming to the competition side, there is competition, as you know. There
is a competition from South Korea. They act via price. The price is much lower than
the Leopard. If you go to Leopard 2A7 at the moment there is a range between
EUR18m and EUR20m per piece, which is a high price in comparison to the Korean
side. So this is from our strategic side point number one. We say, okay, we have to
lower the prices, and this is what we want.
Is there a point that we have to reach exactly the price of the Koreans’? No. We
can be a little bit higher, but not as much as it is at the moment."
