German modern tank decommissioning plant (sorry)

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by cliff

part of the treaty they are being decommissioned by probably states that the vehicles have to be destroyed not converted into anything else or sold except as scrap metal.

Most contracts for military items are priced at 'life cycle'. So instead of a tank costing $100,000, take out off the lot and it's yours, the quoted price is $100,000,000 gazillion which includes spares, maintenance, oil changes, paint jobs, upgrades, kickbacks and bribes and everything else for a period of years. And yes, that includes the vendor taking them back for disposal at the end. It also gives the political opposition great opportunity to bash the procuring government with charges of "how could you possibly waste that much money on those things?"