On Friday April 26, France and Germany took an important step forward on the long, still obstacle-filled road of the “tank of the future”, almost seven years after the launch of this major land weapons program. Their defense ministers, Sébastien Lecornu and Boris Pistorius, signed a memorandum of understanding in Paris on sharing the tasks of the “Main Ground Combat System” (MGCS) between the two countries. This “main land combat system” must replace the German Leclerc and Leopard 2 tanks from 2040. With this phase 1A, the way is open for the development of a demonstrator around 2030.
It was under the auspices of the Hôtel de Brienne, headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, that Mr. Lecornu and Mr. Pistorius staged the relaunch of a project financed equally by Paris and Berlin – a few hundred million euros for this preliminary phase. “At the start of the project, there was a visionunderlined the German minister. Between the vision and the realization, obviously, there was a lot of time and effort. But the signing today is truly a milestone. »
This agreement comes, in fact, after months of discussions on this project, a counterpart for the land armies of the air combat system of the future (SCAF) for the air forces, led by Dassault Aviation and Airbus Defense and Space. It had already fallen behind with the arrival of a new player in 2019: originally led by the Franco-German company KNDS (Nexter – Krauss-Maffei Wegmann), it had been joined by Rheinmetall, the other large German defense group, destabilizing the balance between industrialists. Since then, he has stumbled over the distribution of tasks, but also over the lack of definition of the needs of the French army and the Bundeswehr.
Ground combat in another dimension
After several years of delay, the two countries are showing a desire to accelerate the movement. The two ministers took over the matter in September 2023, during a meeting at the Evreux air base. THE “common operational requirements” to the two armies were finally decided, followed by the definition of eight “pillars”: platforms; “classic” fire (cannon); “innovative” fire (directed energy weapons such as lasers); connectivity; sensors; simulations; active protections of the different components of the system; associated infrastructure.
The MGCS will bring land combat into another dimension: the armored vehicle will be at the center of a global system also including drones, missiles, autonomous firing batteries, and a combat cloud connecting all of these elements. Everything that technology brings – and will bring in the future – will be integrated into this “system of systems”, including advances in artificial intelligence. “It is not a question of whether we are developing a Leopard 3 or a Leclerc 2.0, but something completely new”specified Mr. Pistorius on April 24, in a joint interview with his French counterpart at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
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