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A whole host of new tank designs are emerging from the European drawing boards.
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Many are alternatives to the pan-European tank envisioned by France and Germany.
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There is domestic pressure to support national projects that benefit the country’s workforce.
For years the European tank market was fairly stable. The German Leopard 2 was the most common model in European armies, while Britain, France and Italy produced a small number of indigenous models for their own armies.
But a whole host of new tank designs are coming off the European drawing boards. This is partly fueled by the war in Ukraine, which has seen the most intense armored warfare in Europe since 1945. But it can also be a lack of confidence in the Main Ground Combat Systema joint project between France and Germany to develop a main battle tank by 2040.
“It seems that each industrial partner is working on its own alternative to MGCS,” Léo Péria-Peigné, a French defense expert, told Business Insider.
It was inevitable that a new generation of tanks would emerge to replace the late Cold War designs that still dominate Western armies, such as the Leopard 2, M1 Abrams and British Challenger. Even the US Army is pursuing a next-generation version of the M1 Abrams This would reduce the 70-ton vessel to less than 60 tons.
MCGS is intended to replace the Leopard 2 and the French Leclerc as primary tanks in the German and French armies. Both countries recently signed one agreement to start developing and producing a prototype. But at the same time, it seemed that MGCS could also replace the Leopard 2 as a kind of pan-European tank. MGCS should be a modular design with advanced features such as a 140mm gun, hybrid propulsion, advanced sensors and the ability to assemble unmanned ground vehicles. A conceptual model shown in 2018 used a Leopard 2 hull and a Leclerc turret.
However, there are indications that Germany wants a fallback design based on the latest Leopard 2A8 model, in case MCGS gets out of hand. “The Leopard 2AX, an improved version of the Leopard 2A8 main battle tank, is being developed by the German defense industry at the express request of the Bundeswehr,” said Recognition of the armya news site about defense.
“This development also serves as Plan B for Germany in the event of failure of the Franco-German program, or even as leverage in future negotiations, presenting France with a fait accompli with regard to the crucial decisions that still need to be taken,” Recognition said.
Meanwhile, two new designs are offered by KNDSa joint venture between the German defense company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann – manufacturer of the Leopard 2 – and the French Nexter, which produces the Leclerc.
The Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is a modular design with an unmanned turret with the crew nestled inside the hull, similar to the Russian T-14 Armata. It can fire guided missiles and heavy cannon rounds, plus a 30mm gun and improved armor supported by an active protection system to stop anti-tank missiles. Existing Leopard 2 models can also be retrofitted with these features.
According to a report from KNDS, it is significant that “the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 is considered not only as a bridging solution until the introduction of the next generation land combat system MGCS, but also as a decisive technological precursor of MGCS”. company press release.
KNDS is also promoting the Leclerc Evolution, which is equipped with the company’s Ascalon turret and cannon. The company describes Ascalon as “a main gun for main battle tanks that is more powerful than any comparable barreled weapon. It can fire compact and programmable beyond-line-of-sight ammunition with minimal wear. Due to its scalability, Ascalon can be equipped with any barreled weapon from 120 to 140 mm.”
As if the purchasing picture wasn’t complicated enough, four companies – KNDS Germany, KNDS France, Germany’s Rheinmetall and France’s Thales – have also just completed a communal undertaking to develop the MGCS. However, Rheinmetall also markets it KF51 Panther tank, equipped with a new 130-mm gun. Hungary has signed a development contract for the Panther, which Rheinmetall has also offered to Ukraine.
Political unrest in France has also cast a shadow over MGCS, with far-right parties favored to win the upcoming elections parliamentary elections. “It seems that even the German government believes that the MGCS project can be stopped if the right takes power,” Péria-Peigné said.
“Things will become clearer over time, but it is clear that both partners are keeping alternative solutions in reserve. Germany has been doing that for a long time. The new surprise is that even KNDS France seems to have done the same.”
European defense budgets are already strained by the need to replenish depleted stockpiles, send a steady flow of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, and build up the production capacity to produce all these weapons. This raises the question of whether there is enough money for all these different tank designs.
But the MGCS woes also illustrate the problem that has always plagued joint European defence projects: the tension between saving money through joint development and domestic pressure to promote national projects that benefit a country’s producers and workforce. If MGCS were to be abandoned, it would bode ill for the Future combat air systema French-German-Spanish project to develop a sixth-generation fighter aircraft and air combat drones.
“Giving up MGCS would be a bigger burden for France than for Germany, since Germany doesn’t need France to build a new tank,” Péria-Peigné said. “Unlike the FCAS, where France can technically do it alone, but doesn’t have the money to develop it alone.”
Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twittering And LinkedIn.
Read the original article at Business insider
