Takom 1/35 Leopard C2 MEXAS Canadian MBT 02003

Leopard C2 was introduced in 1999 to replace C1 which had limited night-fighting capabilities. 123 Leopard 1A5 turrets were purchased from Germany, refurbished, and all but nine of them were mounted on the best hulls from the C1 fleet. After the experience of up-armouring their C1s for use in Kosovo in 1999/2000, the same principles were applied to C2 to become Leopard C2 MEXAS. The hull armour was identical to C1, but new modules had to be developed to fit the cast turret of C2. Seventeen were deployed to Afghanistan crewed by the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, from October 2006. Over the course of the Afghan deployment, the C2s were upgraded in the field workshops with, amongst other things, a crew cooling unit and thermal covers in an attempt to reduce the effects of the heat on crews and internal equipment after June 2007.

The mission for the Leopard C2 MEXAS ended with the arrival of Leopard 2A6M and 2A4M CAN in the Afghan theatre, and the number of C2s was reduced from 17 to 7 (2009/2010). The last seven received a mine kit and were tasked with the dirty jobs of mine rolling, mine ploughing and dozing. All C2 MEXAS were withdrawn from Afghanistan mid-2011 and the add-on armour removed.

The C2 has now fired it's last shots in live fire training in Canada and will gradually be decommissioned. The latest rumours suggest that they may be on their way to a South American army.