Despite postponement of production owing to the 2003 merger between Santa Bárbara Sistemas and General Dynamics, and continued manufacturing issues between 2006 and 2007, 219 Leopard 2Es have been delivered to the Spanish army.

By 1987, the Spanish army was equipped with 299 French-designed AMX-30Es, assembled by Santa Bárbara Sistemas,[1] and 552 American M47 and M48 Patton tanks.

[7] Five companies expressed interest in bidding, including Krauss-Maffei in a partnership with Santa Bárbara Sistemas, GIAT with what became the Leclerc, General Dynamics with the M1 Abrams and Vickers with the Valiant.

[17] The program included the Leopard 2E and the Pizarro infantry combat vehicle,[18] as well as the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter.

[21] Apart from procurement, Programa Coraza was meant to prepare the Spanish army logistically for the introduction of new matériel.

[22] A memorandum of understanding was signed on 9 June 1995 between the German and Spanish governments, setting the foundations for an acquisition of up to 308 brand-new Leopard 2Es.

These were to be assembled in Spain by Santa Bárbara Sistemas, with 60–70 percent of the components manufactured by Spanish companies, and production taking place between 1998 and 2003.

Furthermore, the German government agreed to lend the Spanish army 108 Leopard 2A4s for training purposes for a period of five years.

[34] Both the tank commander and gunner have identical second-generation thermal viewers, derived from those of the TOW 2B Light Launcher System.

[19] This was largely due to the merging of Santa Bárbara Sistemas with General Dynamics,[19] and Krauss-Maffei's reservations regarding the sharing of the Leopard 2's technology with a rival company[37] manufacturer of the M1 Abrams.

[40] By 1 July 2006 the Spanish army had received 48 Leopard 2Es and nine Büffel armored recovery vehicles, which was only a quarter of those contracted.

[40] In terms of industrial scale, the production and development of the Leopard 2E represents a total of 2.6 million man-hours of work, including 9,600 in Germany.