Hungary, Germany’s biggest arms customer with a 1.7-billion-euro purchase

The Hungarian Defence Forces have ordered new weapons worth 1.76 billion euros from Germany, making Hungary Germany’s biggest arms customer. However, these arms will only be deployed after 2020.

According to data revealed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Hungary has ordered 1.76 billion Euros (HUF 572 billions) worth of arms from Germany in the first half of 2019 – reports Népszava. The data was published on the request of Omid Nouripour, the German The Greens party’s spokesman on foreign affairs.

At the end of last year, Hungary ordered 44 Leopard 2A7+ battle tanks and 24 Panzerhaubitze 2000 (Pzh 2000) self-propelled howitzers,

however, there was no information disclosed with the public concerning the prices. The data published now reveals that the Hungarian Defence Forces are paying in rates for the heavy arms. The mentioned tanks and howitzers are expected to arrive in Hungary after 2020.

Népszava breaks down the pricing process: the customer has to pay not only for the arms themselves but for the training, for the ammunition, for additional equipment, for software updates and maintenance. For example, Qatar upgraded its military equipment in 2013 in a similar fashion, by purchasing 62 Leopard 2 and 24 Pzh 2000. The price for the arms, the additional equipment and for the training was 1.89 billion euros.

As stated in the announcement made in December 2018, the Hungarian Defence Forces are buying the ‘whole package’:

in addition to the previous services, the agreement mentions a technical rescue and an armoured vehicle-launched bridge (can be used during reparations, rescues and land work).

The Leopard 2 and the Pzh 2000 arms are considered to be state-of-the-art weapons. The previous can be deployed both in urban- and asymmetric warfare, and they were already used in Afghanistan and Syria. The latter will replace the D-20 towed, manually loaded howitzers which were developed at the end of WW2.