Companies from several nations, such as German Krauss-Maffei, Spanish Santa Bárbara, and French GIAT, made bids for the development contract.

To achieve a sufficient level of firepower and protection, the Lince was to use Rheinmetall's 120 mm L/44 tank-gun and German composite armour from the Leopard 2A4.

Four years later the Spanish government procured and locally manufactured the Leopard 2, fulfilling the long-term modernisation goal established in the Lince programme.

During the 1950s the Spanish Army was supplied by the United States with 552 M47 and M48 Patton tanks as a mutual defense pact against a potential Soviet invasion of Western Europe.

[3] As the first batch of production of AMX-30s ended, the French Army and Santa Bárbara began a research programme for an eventual modernisation of the AMX-30 to correct deficiencies such as mechanical reliability, armor protection and the fire control system.

The French government proposed to cooperate with Spain in designing a tank complete with new technology—France would later develop this programme on its own as the AMX-Leclerc.

[12] Apart from producing the French-designed AMX-30, the Spanish government also had a contract for Mirage F1 fighter planes and Puma utility helicopters in 1979.

Krauss-Maffei also cited the loss of millions of dollars because of failures on the part of Santa Bárbara Sistemas, who would manufacture the Lince.

[16] The Spanish Ministry of Defense agreed to modernise the Army's AMX-30Es in 1987 and allotted 16 billion pesetas (155 million dollars) to the programme.

[24] Management issues in Santa Bárbara Sistemas also played a part,[16] including yearly negative balances and the reduction of factory personnel.

[29] The local production terms in the Memorandum allowed Santa Bárbara Sistemas to start producing Leopard 2Es in 2003, and the first platoon of tanks was delivered in December 2003.

[30] In comparison to the smaller Lince, the Leopard 2A4 weighs 55 t (61 short tons) and is powered by a 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) diesel engine.