OTD 55 years ago Bundeswehr receive first Leopard-1 tank

OTD 55 years ago, 9 September of 1965, Bundeswehr receive first Leopard-1 tank

The Leopard 1 MBT was developed to meet the requirements of the Federal German Army and following trials with prototype vehicles was accepted for service in 1963. 

In July 1963, Krauss-Maffei (which in January 1999 became Krauss-Maffei Wegmann with facilities in Munich and Kassel) of Munich was nominated prime contractor for the Leopard 1 MBT and MaK of Kiel was selected as general contractor for production of the armoured recovery vehicle, armoured engineer vehicle and the armoured bridgelayer. MaK also built a small number of Leopard 1 MBTs under subcontract to Krauss-Maffei.

The first production Leopard was handed over to the Federal German Army in September 1965. Production of the Leopard 1 was completed by Krauss-Maffei in 1979 but resumed by both Krauss-Maffei and Krupp-MaK early in 1981 to meet the requirements of Greece and Turkey.

The Leopard 1 was first produced in 1963 by Krauss-Maffei for the German Ministry of Defence and more than 6000 vehicles have been exported to nine NATO countries, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey and also Australia. 

By early 1999 the Leopard 1 MBT was no longer in front line service with the German Army although it was still used by reserve units.