Against the background of new military aid supplies to Ukraine and the "tank coalition" made up for that precise purpose, media have turned their attention towards the Belgian private defense company OIP which has the biggest "private armor arsenal" in Europe in possession: around 500 vehicles of various types are stationed at its hangars.
This Belgian company has already made its mark when it tried to sell Leopard 1 tanks with questionable combat capability to the Ministry of Defense of Belgium at a price of EUR 1 million per vehicle. The company's CEO Freddy Versluys also criticized Austria for not allowing him to sell 112 SK-105 light tanks from storage in this country, although such a deal would be unreasonable for Ukraine for a number of reasons.
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But the paradox is, it is the OIP that has some weapons Ukraine desperately needs, the Gepard "anti-aircraft tanks" in the quantity of 38 vehicles that could reinforce air defense against russian cruise missiles and kamikaze drones. Yet, the owner doesn't show the same interest to sell these.
The Armed Forces of Belgium generally had 55 self-propelled artillery systems of this type. They were delivered in the period from 1977 to 1980. The Belgian Gepard had the same equipment as the German version. At the time of the "Cold War", German Bundeswehr had 420 Gepard vehicles, next the Netherlands had 95 vehicles, and Belgium was the third one on the top-list.
Holland and Belgium took their Gepard out of service in the mid-2000s. The Dutch found a new buyer for their vehicles, at least 60 were sold to Jordan. On the other hand, Belgian Gepard were transferred to OIP storage "in full squad" and keep residing there till these days.
The fact that these SPGs are still in storage was mentioned by Versluys himself in an interview to The Guardian. And it raises a logical question, why none of Ukraine's allies and partners seeks to get these Gepards for Ukraine.
Especially since Germany is currently looking for Gepard guns literally one by one and negotiates with Qatar to buy 15 more Gepards for Ukraine. And in the last arms provision, Germany managed to find and give only two Gepard systems with 6,000 ammunition rounds for them.
Read more: Germany Handed Over to Ukraine Two More Gepard Anti-Aircraft Guns And Ammunition For Them
