 In keeping with Trudeau's "Priority One" of internal security as the prime mission of the Canadian Forces, throughout the 1970s the Canadian Forces were described as having "stagnated", with budget cuts reducing both the size of the Canadian Forces and the amount of equipment available for operations.In 1976, as a favour to his close personal friend, West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and to improve trade talks with the European Economic Community, the Trudeau government purchased 128 German Leopard tanks for Mobile Command.The Leopard tanks were already outclassed by Red Army T-72s and would have served little purpose in the event of World War Three, but were felt to be useful for "Priority One".