Freddy Versluys, the Belgian willing to send 50 Leopards to Ukraine if Germany authorizes it

Standing next to dozens of German-made Leopard 1 tanks and other military vehicles in the cold warehouse in eastern Belgium, Versluys emphasizes that he is the chief executive officer (CEO) of two defense companies with a wide range of activities.. Among them, the manufacture of sensors for spacecraft.

But buying and selling weapons is also part of the business. And it is precisely the tanks that have placed him in the focus of media attention in recent days. The reason? He has been embroiled in a public row with the Belgian Defense Minister, Ludivine Dedonderfor the possibility of sending them to Ukraine.

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While other Western countries have pledged in recent weeks to send their tanks to Zelensky to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, Belgium has not joined that group. And he hasn’t done it for one fundamental reason: he has no tanks left. He sold the last ones, a batch of 50 armored vehicles, to the Versluys company more than five years ago.

The agency Reuters has located Versluys and has met with him to interview him. Asked why he bought the tanks, Versluys, a silver-haired man in his 60s, says that was his company’s business model: he bought unwanted military equipment in the hope that someone would want it in the future. .

“There are still countries in the world that have these Leopard 1 tanks. So there is always the possibility of selling spare parts or additional tanks,” he says. But, he adds: “Of course, there is also a risk… maybe tomorrow we will have to scrap them or maybe 10 years from now they will still be here. “.

The Belgian Defense Minister has said that the government has considered the idea of ​​buying back tanks to send them to Ukraine. But she has criticized the prices as “unreasonable” and “extremely high”. “The tanks that sold for 10,000-15,000 euros each are now on sale for 500,000 euros, despite not even being operational,” she said.

The discussion highlights a difficult situation facing Western governments as they scramble to find more weapons for Ukraine after nearly a year of war: the weapons they discarded as obsolete are now in high demand, many of them in the hands of private companies.

Dedonder did not directly mention Versluys’ company, OIP Land Systems, when he launched his accusations. But Versluys is sure that these statements were directed against him. Reuters He has contacted the Belgian Defense Minister, but has not wanted to comment.

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Instead, Versluys wanted to go public to question the minister’s statements. And, in an unusual gesture, she has dared to offer her vision of how these types of companies work, which often prefer to keep a low profile and stay away from the media.

Versluys maintains that his company bought the 50 tanks for around 2 million euros and that only 33 were in usable conditions. That would mean a unit price of 40,000 euros for 50 tanks, or about 60,600 euros for 33. According to Versluys, their sale price could range from several hundred thousand euros to close to a million, but those amounts would include the work necessary to recondition tanks. “Something that can be very expensive,” he stresses.

Replacing the system that controls the shots could cost around 350,000 euros per tank, replacing the asbestos in the engine could cost 75,000 euros, he says. And he makes it clear that each tank has to be evaluated individually.

“We still have to see what their real state is and how much we have to spend on them so that they can be used,” he says.

military hypermarket

As part of its public offensive, Versluys has opened the doors of its warehouse, located on the outskirts of the provincial city of Tournai, to journalists. It is reminiscent of a military hypermarket, filled with rows of Leopard 1 tanks in dusty green and black camouflage and dozens of other military vehicles, along with shelves full of spare parts and loads of straps.

During his promotional talk, Versluys also emphasizes that its refurbished Leopard 1 tanks could be ready for the battlefield within a few monthsmuch faster than the new models they are now asking for, which will take a few years to produce.

The Leopard 1 is the predecessor to the Leopard 2 tanks that Germany, Poland, Finland and other countries agreed to send to Ukraine last month. It is lighter than the Leopard 2 and its main gun is also different. Also, the models found in the Versluys warehouse were last remodeled in the 1990s.

Yohann Michel, analyst at the think tank of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, explains to Reuters that Leopard 1 tanks are not as valuable on the battlefield nor do they have the same performance as their successors. “But they could still be useful to take on older Russian tanks and to support infantry units”, especially if they were refitted using top quality materials.

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If Belgium doesn’t want to buy the tanks back, another country could buy them to send to Zelensky. The businessman assures that he has held talks with several European governments to be able to make this other option effective.

Versluys says Britain bought 46 infantry fighting vehicles from his company last year to ship to Ukraine and sent engineers working around the clock to refit them.

However, In order to export any of your Leopard 1s, you need the approval of the Belgian region of Wallonia.where the company is headquartered, and from Berlinsince the tanks were manufactured by the German company KMW.

Versluys is a good seller, listing names, model numbers, and prices for numerous pieces of military equipment. He worked as an engineer in the Belgian army before dedicating himself to the business world.

And he insists that he does not like the “arms dealer” label, and that the arms business is better than people think: “Contrary to what people believe, it is a fairly civilized market.”