Review of LEIR operation in 2018

During run 2 (2015-2018) the LEIR machine experienced several important improvements in terms of extracted intensity, driven by the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project requirements. In 2018 the machine not only gave another step forward in extracted intensity, but also demonstrated that it could deliver the LIU target intensity in a reproducible and reliable way. The main steps that allowed the high performance reach of the NOMINAL beam and improvements to the machine stability are detailed in this paper. This work is also intended to be a reference for the restart after the Long Shutdown 2