Leopard 2A8: A Coveted Trophy

Official News, Development Blogs and Updates
164

the specific situation is none has yet officially been chosen

yes and i hope they will then add it to the model

165

It would be a nice nod if nothing else. Camo nets have minimal effect but people still want them.

Or sandbag decorations. Not disagreeing with you, just presenting a different way to think about it.

166

They’ll add it as a separate thank.

That said, if you get two APS tanks and one with LWS that might actually be a better scenario for line up purposes. Would be more grind… but two aps equiped tanks would be kind nice at top tier.

167

So the conclusion is: whether it’s BVVD and the designers, or the whole dev team, they simply don’t want to give the German tree anything good. But it’s been far too long since Germany got a top-tier MBT, so they had no choice but to add one — and so they carefully hand-picked a special “pre-production” version just to screw with German players.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
I’ve read the two points you added, and I dug up the most important source — the on-site report from the Munich roll-out. The answer: the Munich vehicle really didn’t have the laser warning system fitted yet, and the German side themselves acknowledge that difference.

1. The Munich version’s laser warning system: not fitted

hartpunkt’s report from the KNDS Munich-Allach plant roll-out on 19 November 2025, gist of the original wording:

  • The German A8 can be told apart from the Norwegian version “by the laser warning system missing from the turret front”
  • The Norwegian 2A8 carries an Israeli-made laser warning system; the German batch will get a German-made one — the type that is “already in service with frontline units”
  • The German 2A8 is configured to D-LBO basic, while the Norwegian version uses its own radios and battlefield management system

One point to add: Trophy itself does not include a laser warning system. Trophy is four AESA radars plus two launchers — it detects with radar, computes a fire-control solution, and as a bonus provides hostile-fire source location, feeding the shooter’s coordinates into the inter-vehicle network. A laser warning system is an independent passive sensor; the two do not share hardware.

2. Later production version: it is fitted

Two lines of evidence:

  1. The A8 shown at Eurosatory in June 2026 — possibly the final version — is described in detail in the big War Thunder forum research thread (citing BAAINBw): besides Trophy, it integrates four German-made laser warning receivers, and also carries an ODAEON prototype (a heavily upgraded MUSS 2.0).
  2. Schedule: the first batch goes to units for trials in 2026, the first serial deliveries in 2027, all 123 vehicles by 2030, with the first unit to convert being the 45th Armoured Brigade stationed in Lithuania.

So the timeline is: Munich unveiling (Nov 2025) with no LWS → Eurosatory (June 2026) with the German LWS fitted → the 2027 delivery batch should have it. The gap in between is the schedule not catching up with the unveiling, not a deliberate design choice.

3. The 75 additional vehicles: same version, no separate variant

The same hartpunkt article is clear on this:

  • At the roll-out, Pistorius said the MoD is preparing a procurement proposal for 75 vehicles the following year
  • The article’s own judgement: this purchase is “very likely the same version” (die auch von anderen Nationen … geordert wurde), i.e. the one ordered by Lithuania, Sweden, Czechia and the Netherlands
  • Reported system price: about €20 million
  • KNDS Germany CEO Ralf Ketzel also mentioned possible additional customers in Spain and the Baltic states; Croatia had earlier announced up to 50

Conclusion: the 75 are not “another version” on top of the 2027 first batch — they are an additional batch of the same standard A8 configuration, just with the contract landing a year later. That also means they naturally come with the German LWS and the ODAEON upgrade path.

4. Sources

One caveat: the last two are player-community sources (War Thunder forum / Reddit). They quote BAAINBw and on-site photos, but they are not official sources, so it’s best to label them as “community research quoting official statements”. The only hard sources are the hartpunkt report and the BMVg release.

3 Likes
168

You’ve got it wrong. If it were just the lack of an LWS — something that isn’t even that important in practice — German players wouldn’t be this angry.

The real reason people are angry is this: German players waited years for a new MBT that’s actually usable, and then the new tank gets chopped down and stripped in the dev server before they’ve even got their hands on it — missing this, missing that. Then they look over and see that Sweden next door got the L2A8NO, which is not only more complete but better equipped. That makes German players who waited all that time look like complete clowns. That’s the part that actually pisses people off. (Note: I don’t think something like the first-generation EMBT — a franken-tank with a Leclerc turret bolted onto a Leopard 2A7V hull — counts as a proper top-tier MBT.)

If Gaijin had just given Sweden only the Strv 123A this patch instead of the L2A8NO — letting German players enjoy the L2A8 as their exclusive for a couple of months — and then added the stronger L2A8NO for Sweden in the next patch, none of this player rage would have happened.

You need to get the actual problem straight.

1 Like
169

2A7V is usable, right ?

Because of ?

170

I never said the L2A7V is unusable — but what has come after it?

So why don’t you go and check when the L2A7V was added to the game? And why don’t you check how long it’s been since the German tree got a new top-tier tank?

171

And thats the Problem with AI SLOP

Eurosatory 2026 vehicle features ELBIT System LWR the same as on the 2A8NO AND NOT THE ONE USED BY GERMANY
image
image

2 Likes
172

Why can’t Germany get the Eurosatory vehicle, when its about a specific configuration? Whats the reasoning to give Germany just an unfinished pre-production prototype, which is just supposed to be for certification and evaluation?

1 Like
173

And now you got a tank that can easily compete with 2A7V, where’s the problem in that ?

Since EMBT ?

1 Like
174

Even so, it still leads to one clear conclusion: Gaijin cherry-picked one specific version of the L2A8 for Germany. Hard not to laugh at that 😅

175

because Eurosatory vehicles are mockups made by companies for marketing not countries

1 Like
176

They picked the one which exists currently with the BAAINBw/Bundeswehr nothing more nothing less

177

Doesn’t look like a mockup . And its a German company. So what?

178

Also, one more thing — Gaijin isn’t exactly shy about using what you call “AI-generated garbage” either. Who doesn’t use AI these days, haha?

179

The ODAEON looks very much like a mock up

180

doesnt mean you shouldnt actually spend a few seconds fact checking

181

So I’ll now paste something a moderator said in their own words.

2
21019×174 26.1 KB

So why doesn’t that apply when it’s Germany’s turn? Does the German L2A8 somehow not technically support those devices?
Come on, don’t be such a hypocrite about it — that’s genuinely disgusting 😅

2 Likes
182

No, man. Even if I did verify how credible the sources are, the moment it goes into the issue section it gets hit with “not enough info” anyway. This has happened way more than once or twice — don’t play dumb about it. They don’t even accept the developer’s own documents. So no, I’m not going to go verify anything. That’s not my job — that’s for the developers to deal with. I’ve paid real money for this game; I’m not playing it for free.

183

Dont throw whataboutism in this, planes are a different matter

The matter of fact is:
There is NO PUBLIC DECISION YET WHAT LWS German Leo 2A8s will receive other than it is not one made by ELBIT systems as featured on the Norwegian model and the eurosatory model

2 Likes