Procurement: May 12, 2002

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Malaysia continues to evaluate foreign tanks, having shopped for these since 1985 without ever buying. Over the years, they have evaluated the Czech T-72, the German Leopard-1A5, the Slovak T-72, the South Korean K1M, the Russian T-72S and T-90, the Ukrainian T-80 and T-84, and the British Vickers Mk3. Poland, which has just completed a sales presentation for its PT-91Z (a copy of the T-72) says it is confident that it will get an order for about 65 tanks (with follow on orders for 120 more) but analysts note that other potential vendors had previously expressed confidence in orders that never came.--Stephen V Cole