to accelerate the MGCS program, Sébastien Lecornu gives the floor to the military

2023-05-30 12:46:15

The Minister for the Armed Forces has announced that he will go to Berlin on June 12 to relaunch the Franco-German cooperation program on the “tank of the future”. He asks the French and German soldiers to express the needs that the manufacturers will have to follow.

In parallel with the Scaf (air combat system of the future), France and Germany are preparing a ground combat system of the future. Its name: the MGCS, for Main Ground Combat System (in French, main ground combat system). It should replace the Leopard 2 german and the Leclerc tank French from 2040.

Like the Scaf, successor to the Rafale and the Eurofighter, this program was launched in 2017 but, unlike the plane, it is still at the stage of discussion between Paris and Berlin, to the point that many doubt its materialization.

To speed up the file, Sébastien Lecornu has announced that he will go to Berlin on June 12 to meet his counterpart. According to the Minister of the Armed Forces, the delay in the program concerns “the expression of the needs that the two armies (French and German) must formalize, on what is expected of the tank”. For the minister, who was speaking in the context of the presentation of the LPM 2024-2030 to the National Assembly, “it is up to the military to do it, not to the industrialists”.

“I gave a mandate to the Chief of Staff of the Army to make proposals to us in connection with the German Chief of Staff to clearly define what is expected of this tank of tomorrow: inhabited or not” with “its swarm of drones around or not”, and with “what level of hardening of its armament”, explained Sébastien Lecornu.

German industrialists play for time

The program therefore risks not being finalized in the short term. Sébastien Lecornu specified that a “status point” will be sent to Parliament “in 2025”. Last November, the manufacturers, KNDS, a joint venture formed by the French Nexter and the German Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, and Rheinmetall, finally reached an agreement on the 50/50 distribution of tasks.

The objective of achieving it in 2035, or even 2040, remains unchanged. In February, the Minister declared that MGCS is a priority program.

“We will need a front tank, calendararily, the plane of the future (…). Whatever happens, we will need a plane and a tank”, assured Sébatien Lecornu.

In Germany, the manufacturers seem less in a hurry as expressed by the industrialist Renk, who supplies the gearbox for the Leopard 2 tank and must participate in the MGCS. In April, in an interview with the economic weekly economy week spotted by Opex360Susanne Wiegand, CEO of Renk, explains that orders for Leopard 2A7+ by the countries which donated tanks to Ukraine monopolize its production lines and those of Rheinmetall “to the point that there are perhaps no more room for MGCS at the moment”.

“It will be necessary to assess politically what this new development means for the continuation of the MGCS,” she said.

NKDS’ EMBT, an “interim solution”

Another risk is the KF-51 Panther, an ultra-modern tank created by Rheinmetall on its own funds and presented as the successor to the Leopard 2 for export customers. The manufacturer says it is ready to deliver the first Panthers in 2025. This project has not been approved by Berlin, which must give its agreement to sell arms abroad.

KDNS also has a plan with the EMBT (Euro Main Battle Tank) created from a Leopard 2A7 chassis and a Leclerc turret. While waiting for the MGCS, this tank could take over from the Leclerc explained on May 3 Nicolas Chamussy, CEO of Nexter, during a hearing at the National Assembly.

“The MGCS program remains in the line of sight. It will take an intermediate solution one way or another to succeed the Leclerc tank. The EMBT has been proposed. It is clearly part of the solutions envisaged”, declared the CEO from Nexter.

In the meantime, France is modernizing its Leclerc tanks to make them compatible with the Scorpion program for collaborative combat and thus extend their lifespan. But, for Sébastien Lecornu, this update “cannot take us over many decades.”