While he does not like the “arms dealer” label, he said the weapons business is better than its reputation: “Contrary to what people say, it’s quite a civilised market.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu He worked as an engineer in the Belgian military before going into business.
Versluys is a smooth salesman, reeling off names, model numbers and prices of numerous bits of military kit. However, any export of Leopard 1s would require the approval from the Belgian region of Wallonia, where the company is based, and from Berlin, as the tanks were made by German firm KMW. Last year, Britain bought 46 infantry fighting vehicles from his firm for Ukraine and sent out engineers who worked round the clock to refit them, Versluys said. Versluys said he had held discussions with several European governments about that option. If Belgium does not buy back the tanks, another country could purchase them for Kyiv. Yohann Michel, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, said Leopard 1 tanks would not be as valuable on the battlefield as their successors.īut, he said, they could still be of some use in taking on older Russian tanks and in supporting infantry units, particularly if they were refitted to a high standard. The models in Versluys’s warehouse were last upgraded in the 1990s. It is lighter than the Leopard 2 and has a different type of main gun. The Leopard 1 is the predecessor of the Leopard 2 tanks that Germany, Poland, Finland and other countries agreed last month to send to Ukraine. In his sales pitch, Versluys also emphasises that refitted Leopard 1 tanks could be battlefield-ready in months - much more quickly than new models ordered today, which will take years to produce. It resembles a military hypermarket, filled with lines of Leopard 1 tanks in dusty green and black camouflage and scores of other military vehicles, along with shelves stacked with spare parts and piles of webbing. MILITARY HYPERMARKETĪs part of his public offensive, Versluys has given journalists tours of his warehouse on the outskirts of the provincial town of Tournai. “We still have to look at what is their actual status and what we have to spend on them to make them suitable,” he said. Each tank had to be assessed individually. Replacing the system that controls the gunfire could cost 350,000 euros per tank, replacing asbestos in the engine could cost 75,000 euros, he said.
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