BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) -France and Germany, at odds over aid to Ukraine, displayed a united front on Friday by sealing the terms of the “tank of the future” program and announcing the upcoming implementation of a factory of the Defense holding company KNDS in Ukraine.
The “future tank” or MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) program, “main ground combat system” in French, was launched jointly in 2017 by Paris and Berlin, at the same time as the Scaf, “the hunt of the future”, which is progressing slowly. Spain then joined the two partners in this latest project.
The MGCS aims to replace the German Leopard 2 tanks and the French Leclerc tanks.
After signing a joint roadmap last September, the German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, and the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, announced during a meeting in Berlin an agreement on the distribution of tasks between the two countries for this ambitious project whose completion is set for 2040-2045
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In Paris, we welcome “a good agreement for French industry”. “It is quite clear that the industrial load will be 50/50 for each pillar,” the Ministry of the Armed Forces emphasizes.
On April 26, the two ministers will sign a commitment agreement for the so-called “1A” phase of the tank of the future.
This armored vehicle “will have a level of innovation which will be particularly impressive, in its connectivity in electronic warfare,” declared Sébastien Lecornu during a joint press conference with Boris Pistorius.
The ministers consider this program “structuring” for their armies, but also for NATO, because a “program like this creates de facto interoperability for the different armies across the entire European continental shelf”.
TRILATERAL IN DECEMBER ON SCAF
Regarding Scaf, the air combat system of the future, a trilateral meeting between France, Germany and Spain is planned for December for a progress update on the program.
The objective is to replace the French Rafale and the German and Spanish Eurofighter by 2040, but the program has suffered numerous delays, notably due to disagreements between the French Dassault and the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, which represents the German parties. and Spanish.
Military aid to Ukraine also figured prominently in the discussions, with Boris Pistorius and Sébastien Lecornu announcing the creation of a subsidiary of the Franco-German company KNDS in Ukraine.
KNDS is the holding company formed since 2015 by the French Nexter and the German Krauss Maffei Wegmann (KMW). It notably produces battle tanks, armored vehicles and artillery systems.
KNDS, which has already supplied weapons systems to Ukraine for its conflict with Russia, will initially train workers and produce spare parts and ammunition for the maintenance of existing systems.
“As production capacities move closer to the front line, that means less logistics and less reliability in the ability to supply the Ukrainian armed forces,” underlined Sébastien Lecornu.
The Ministry of the Armed Forces is told that the Ukrainian subsidiary of KNDS will be able to produce “complete weapons systems” in a second phase.
(Writing by Kate Entringer and Sophie Louet, with contributions from John Irish, editing by Kate Entringer)
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