January19, 2007:
The Swiss army is taking a dozen retired Leopard 2 tanks, and
spending $6.4 million each to transform them into armored engineering vehicles.
Called the "Kodiak," each vehicle will have two sets of accessories. One will
be for typical engineering duties (a dozer blade and earth moving extendable
shovel), the other will be for mine clearing. An armored engineering vehicle is
designed to accomplish either of these tasks under fire. While the 120mm gun
will be removed, the Kodiak will still have 12.5mm and 7.62mm machine-guns.
Switzerland hopes to get export orders as well.