Lithuania Contracts the 13,000-Square-Metre Kaunas Hall Where Its 44 Leopard 2A8s Will Be Assembled
Kaunas, 30 July 2026
Key points
- Lithuania Defence Services — the joint venture of KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall Landsysteme — contracted YIT Lietuva to build a 13,000-square-metre assembly and maintenance plant on almost 10 hectares in the Kaunas free economic zone
- The contract is EUR 29 million to the client, worth about EUR 30 million to the contractor; total facility investment has previously been put near EUR 50 million
- Construction starts in August 2026 and completes in November 2027; the first tank is expected to leave the plant in late 2028, with all 44 of Lithuania's Leopard 2A8s through by 2030
- The site is planned for up to 100 jobs — around 70 production and 30 administrative
- State-owned Epso-G Invest is expected to take 25.1 per cent of the joint venture; the plant's remit is assembly, servicing, repair and combat readiness of heavy equipment in Lithuania
Lithuania Defence Services signed YIT Lietuva on 30 July to build a 13,000-square-metre Leopard 2A8 assembly and maintenance plant in the Kaunas free economic zone for EUR 29 million, completing in November 2027.
The venture behind it pairs the two German land primes — KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall Landsysteme — with the Lithuanian state expected to hold 25.1 per cent through Epso-G Invest. Its remit is not manufacture from raw material but assembly, technical servicing, repair and maintaining the combat readiness of heavy equipment inside Lithuania. The sequence is dated: ground broken in August 2026, building finished November 2027, first tank out in late 2028, and Lithuania's full order of 44 Leopard 2A8s through the hall by 2030.
The numbers are modest and worth stating as such. Up to 100 jobs, roughly 70 of them on production; EUR 29 million for the building against a facility investment previously put near EUR 50 million.
Where a tank fleet is maintained bears harder on its readiness than where it is built. Lithuania is buying its Leopards from Germany either way; what this plant changes is that heavy repair happens inside the country rather than requiring a rail move west, which matters most in exactly the conditions under which rail moves west become difficult. Großwald recorded the contract in Signal No. 114. Two things remain unstated: whether the Epso-G Invest stake has closed, and what proportion of deep maintenance the hall is actually cleared to perform rather than route back to the manufacturer.
