Canada will be deploying 15 Leopard 2 tanks along with support personnel and equipment to Latvia, joining a NATO-enhanced battle group meant to respond to any potential security threats in the Baltic Sea region,
says National Defence Minister Anita Anand.
On June 16, Anand told reporters during an online news conference she held from Brussels, Belgium, that Canada’s deployment of the army tank squadron will be part of a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) operation titled “
REASSURANCE,“ which is CAF’s largest overseas mission and intended to support ”NATO assurance and deterrence measures in Central and Eastern Europe.”
Canada’s tank
deployment is set to take place over the next few months and will consist of all 15 Canadian tanks, initial support personnel, and equipment being sent to Latvia by this fall.
At full strength, Canada will be also be deploying around 130 personnel and over 35 vehicles—including two armoured recovery vehicles and some maintenance, fuel, supply, and transport vehicles—along with the tanks.
The CAF tank squadron will be
joining the Canada-led, NATO-enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Latvia, a “ten-nation battle group” that Canada has led since 2017.
Anand told reporters that the Leopard 2 tanks will come from CAF bases in Gagetown, New Brunswick, and Edmonton, Alberta.
“The deployment of a Canadian Army Tank Squadron to Latvia demonstrates Canada’s continued commitment to Latvia’s security, and the collective defence of NATO,” she said in a press release.
During her trip to Belgium, Anand participated in a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and a meeting of NATO defence ministers.
‘Simply Moving Tanks’
Anand said it’s important to distinguish this tank deployment from Canada’s previous donations of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.“We are not donating these tank, we’re deploying them,” she said, adding later, “We are simply moving tanks and vehicles to Latvia, where we have a current operation.”
Canada previously
donated eight Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine in two separate instalments earlier this year, with Anand announcing the first batch of four tanks in late January and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing the second on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
DND gave an update on the Canadian military’s current tank fleet numbers in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons in late March.
DND said in the Inquiry that around 30 percent of the Canadian Army’s Leopard 2 main battle tank fleet—which consists of 74 in total—would be out of commission due to required maintenance for about three years starting in May. DND also said it has not yet confirmed any date for retiring the Leopard 2 main battle tanks to replace them with newer models.
The Leopard 2 first entered
service in the 1970s and the basic model has been upgraded numerous times since.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
