Bergepanzer 2

The Bergepanzer 2 is an armored recovery vehicle based on the Leopard 1 main battle tank, developed in the 1960s and manufactured by Atlas-MaK Maschinenbau for the West German army. It first entered service in 1966 and replaced the earlier Bergepanzer 1. Various versions have served in the armed forces of Germany and other countries. It was later succeeded by the Bergepanzer 3 "Büffel".

History
The West German rearmament from the mid-1950s led to the initial equipping of the Bundeswehr with U.S. armored vehicles. In addition to M47 and M48 Patton main battle tanks, M74 Armored Recovery Vehicles were introduced, which, from 1962, were replaced by the M88 Recovery Vehicle, designated "Bergepanzer 1".

Development
The Leopard 1 was designed from the outset as a family of vehicles. This was intended to significantly reduce the cost of operating, maintaining and repairing the tracked vehicles, since the personnel for many areas only required one-off training and the assemblies could be easily replaced. Right after the Leopard, the armored recovery vehicle 2 was tackled. "Its main task is to recover or, as far as possible, repair on the spot tanks that have broken down on the battlefield due to enemy action or technical damage."

On September 9, 1966, the first Bergepanzer Standard rolled off the production line at MaK Kiel.

WiSENT 1
FFG offers the WiSENT in 3 different variants, the WiSENT 1 ARV, the WiSENT 1 AEV and the WiSENT 1 Mine Clearing.

Current operators

 * 🇧🇷 Brazil – Brazil operates a least 1 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇨🇱 Chile – Chile operates 35 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇩🇰 Denmark – Denmark operates 10 BPz-2 and 6 WiSENT 1 as of 2021.
 * 🇪🇪 Estonia – Estonia operates 2 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇫🇮 Finland – Finland operates 9 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇩🇪 Germany – Germany operates 82 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * Army – 59
 * Joint Support Service – 23
 * 🇬🇷 Greece – Greece operates 43 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇮🇹 Italy – Italy operates 137 BPz-2 as of 2021. MaK originally delivered 69 BPz-2 and 12 Pionierpanzer. The Italian company OTO Melara produced another 68 Bergepanzer 2 under license.
 * 🇱🇹 Lithuania – Lithuania operates 8 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands – The Netherlands operate more than 4 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * Army – Unknown number
 * Marine Corps – 4
 * 🇳🇴 Norway – Norway operates 6 BPz-2, named NM217 Bergepanservogn as of 2021.
 * 🇵🇱 Poland – Poland operates 28 BPz-2 as of 2021.
 * 🇹🇷 Turkey – Turkey operates 12 BPz-2 as of 2022.
 * 🇺🇦 Ukraine – ~39 pledged or delivered (31 from Germany, ~2 from Norway and 5 in cooperation from Germany and Denmark ), while 1 was damaged.

Former operators

 * 🇦🇺 Australia – Australia received 8 Bergepanzer 2 in 1977 with the introduction of the Leopard 1. The vehicles were deployed with the Australian Army, designated "Armoured Recovery Vehicle - Medium" (ARVM). With the arrival of the M1 Abrams in 2007, the Bergepanzer 2 retired.
 * 🇧🇪 Belgium – The Belgian Army originally had a stock of 36 BPz-2. 20 remaining vehicles were upgraded to the Bergepanzer 2000 in 2002. One vehicle was sold to Brazil. With the transformation of the Army, which eliminated tracked vehicles, the Bergepanzer 2 retired.
 * 🇨🇦 Canada – Canada maintained 9 Bergepanzer 2A2s. The vehicles, designated "Taurus", were deployed in the tank companies of the Canadian Army. The armament used was the C6 GPMG machine gun. Divestment of the Taurus was expected upon final delivery of the Bergepanzer 3, designated "Mammoth".