German second generation main battle tank. The Krauss-Maffei company began developing the tank in 1968; in 1970, German Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt made it the basis for a promising battle tank for the Bundeswehr; in 1972, the first prototypes were built. In 1976, the Leopard 2AV prototype underwent comparative testing alongside the XM1 prototype at Aberdeen Proving Ground in the United States. The first production tank Leopard-2 was delivered to the German army on October 25, 1979. By 2015, a total of more than 3,600 tanks of this type were produced.