Canada's broken tanks evince an unserious security partner
Canada’s meager tank fleet is a relic of the War in Afghanistan. In 2007, Ottawa deployed its old Leopard 1 tank fleet to the Middle East but quickly realized that new equipment was needed. It subsequently purchased over 80 lightly-used Leopard 2s from the Netherlands, which were essentially abandoned after Canadian combat operations in Afghanistan concluded in 2011. In a stupendous error, Ottawa had assumed that Leopard 2s would have the same maintenance needs as Leopard 1s. However, the newer tanks required six times more maintenance hours and, as such, there were only half the technicians needed to keep the fleet from decaying. Critical components were also chronically unavailable, rendering many tanks unrepairable. Despite a decade of half-hearted efforts to fix the problem, two academic papers published by the Canadian Forces College in 2018 and 2022 suggest that only 15%-20% of Canadian tanks are fit for battle.
