The Leopard 2 with its typical vertically sided turret was introduced into the German Army (Bundeswehr) from 1979 (A4 - 2125 units) and into the Dutch Armed Forces (A4NL - 445 units) from 1983 onwards. At this point in time it was clearly superior and technically far in advance of all other Main Battle Tanks. The integration of technical innovation, performance and reliability have helpedit achieve a legendary reputation. Constant improvements during mass production led to the distinctive variants, A0 to A4. Since all previous versions (A0 to A3) have subsequently been updated, one now only refers to the A4. With the ending of the Cold War, Germany and the Netherlands gave some of their Leopards to other countries including Austria, Spain, Poland and Greece. The Leopard is now in service with 16 countries worldwide, in the German Army only as the A5, A6 and A6M uprated combat versions.