Last Friday, April 26, the Memorandum of Understanding between France and Germany for the manufacture of a new generation tank was signed in Paris. The Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Sébastian Lecornu, and the Minister of Defense of Germany, Boris Pistoriu, participated in the signing.
The firm that formalizes the development of the new Project called MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) comes after long negotiations, the last meetings between both Ministers were in Cologne on July 15 of last year, and then on March 15 of this year. After both meetings, an equitable work system was agreed in which the same workload is assigned to each country and which companies will carry it out. The German company Rheinmetall, KNDS (an alliance of the French Nexter and the German Krauss-Maffei Wegmann) will play a key role, and on the French side, Thales, Safran and MBDA will participate.
The purpose of the Program is to replace the Leopard 2 family of tanks (in its various versions) of the German Armed Forces and the Leclerc of France by 2040. The Minister of the French Armed Forces celebrated the alliance on his account X official: “This Franco-German tank of the future is the common commitment of our countries to defense and sovereignty in Europe!“.
The prototype plans are still unknown but the experiences that occurred in Ukraine with the vulnerability of anti-drone defenses, 120 mm calibers and the new generation of anti-tank guided missiles will be taken into account. The project will embark on eight pillars, among which they will seek to cover the main platform, tower and armament that surpasses the current 120mm cannons, firing mechanisms, connectivity, electronic warfare and propulsion (possibly hybrid for greater stealth and autonomy). The proposal for the new tank is expected to be delivered before the end of the year.
*Cover image used for illustration: KF-21 Panther conceptual tank from the German company Rheinmetall.
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