German tank maker KNDS and Norway’s Ritek have begun producing Leopard 2A8 tanks in Norway, giving the countries’ expanding security partnership a new industrial foothold on land. Their cooperation already reaches across submarines, missiles, military operations and space capabilities.

Production started Oct. 15 in Levanger, where the companies will build 37 of the Norwegian Army’s 54 new tanks. KNDS said the facility required 18 months to establish and can produce as many as 36 tanks annually.

The production milestone followed the late April inauguration of manufacturing and testing infrastructure at the site. It completed an existing procurement arrangement rather than announcing another Norwegian tank purchase.

The tank effort sits within a much broader partnership that the German and Norwegian governments formalized in February through the Hansa Arrangement. According to a readout from Norway’s Defense Ministry, its priorities include maritime operations, combined arms land warfare, rapid reinforcement, industry cooperation and space capabilities.

Those space priorities include surveillance, targeting and communications. Taken together with the land and maritime projects, the arrangement connects industrial production with the operational needs identified by both governments.

The countries’ submarine partnership provides the clearest example of equipment purchases tying their armed forces and security strategies together. Both countries plan to operate six identical Type 212CD submarines, according to the Norwegian ministry.

That submarine effort also covers personnel training and new maintenance facilities at Haakonsvern, near Bergen. Berlin and Oslo are separately collaborating on the next generation 3SM maritime strike missile, adding another major naval program to the partnership.

The relationship is also moving beyond procurement and industrial questions. Germany contributed approximately 1,800 troops to Norway’s Cold Response exercise in March, according to the German government.

Norway said in February that discussions were underway about placing German equipment on its territory before it is needed. That possibility fits the Hansa Arrangement’s stated emphasis on rapid reinforcement and combined military operations in Europe’s north.

Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs concluded in a December 2024 assessment that Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 accelerated the longstanding German and Norwegian partnership. Researcher Øyvind Svendsen also explained that Germany’s increasing dependence on Norwegian gas strengthened Berlin’s interest in protecting offshore infrastructure.

Germany’s military is taking on a larger role in the North Atlantic as part of this cooperation. Its new P-8A Poseidon aircraft are covering the GIUK gap between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, an important area Russian nuclear submarines must cross to reach the open Atlantic.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the aircraft would operate from Norwegian and Icelandic air bases for that mission. The deployment adds an operational aviation component to a partnership already stretching across armor, submarines, missiles and reinforcement planning.

Space cooperation is another growing avenue. During a March visit to Andøya, Pistorius identified a joint imaging reconnaissance satellite constellation as a project he wanted the countries to pursue, according to his ministry.

Oslo and Berlin agreed in April to establish a bilateral space working group focused on launch capabilities, space based surveillance and secure communications. Norway’s spaceport on Andøya is particularly well positioned to launch satellites into polar orbits, which are preferable for spy satellites.

The countries are also participating together in the Multinational Multi Role Tanker Transport Fleet. That effort pools access to Airbus A330 MRTT aircraft for aerial refueling, strategic transport and medical evacuation.

Germany and Norway are additionally among five countries funding phase one of EU HYDEF, a program working on a European hypersonic interceptor missile. From Leopard 2A8 production in Levanger to surveillance in orbit, the Hansa Arrangement is giving their expanding partnership an increasingly broad military and industrial reach.