Germany, France eye new partners for next-gen tank in 2024

PARIS — The defense ministers of France and Germany expect to begin negotiations for their next-generation tank project with industry leaders KNDS and Rheinmetall in 2024, after which other European countries could join the initiative.

Italy, the Netherlands and “many others” expressed an interest in joining the project to develop the Main Ground Combat System , or MGCS, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at a press conference at Evreux airbase west of Paris on Thursday.

There is the possibility of nations joining as “observers” as a first step, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said. German and French top military leaders are in discussion with the Italian armed forces, who have their own future armored cavalry requirements, the minister said.

Berlin and Paris will spend the rest of the year hammering out of project specifications, after the two countries’ army chiefs reported on the operational requirements for the replacement of Germany’s Leopard 2 and France’s Leclerc main battle tanks. That will put both governments in a position to uphold their military objectives, as MGCS contractors are expected to push their own ideas for the next-generation tank once negotiations begin, Pistorius said.

The agreement on operational requirements “shows to what point, basically, it won’t be a new Leopard and it won’t be a new Leclerc,” Lecornu said. “The technological breakthroughs are going to be brutal.”

The future tank is expected to come into service on the 2040-2045 horizon, according to Lecornu. The French minister said he hopes the first contracts will be signed in 2024.

Other interested EU countries will only be invited to join the project once France and Germany have defined the specs of the future tank, according to Lecornu.

The future tank will be modular, including platforms that can be either manned or automated, according to Lecornu. It will have a classic fire capability – “it goes without saying that the function of classic fire will not have disappeared” – but also electromagnetic weapons, electronic warfare functionality and laser weapons, the minister said.

The MGCS will require a reactive defense with a hard-kill capacity, drones to protect the tank, artificial intelligence functionality to coordinate fire in a connected environment, and the technological leap in terms of cybersecurity will be “absolutely colossal,” Lecornu said.

France and Germany will discuss in the coming days how to divide the work on the project into several “pillars,” Pistorius said. The countries are taking inspiration from their joint Future Combat Air System project, which has defined pillars including the combat aircraft, engine, drones and combat cloud architecture, each assigned to a different group of contractors with a national lead.

The war in Ukraine has shown the costs of tank maintenance in a high-intensity conflict, and keeping operational support costs under control will be a “major element” in the choices for the future tank, according to Lecornu.

Pistorius said the MGCS is “a lot more advanced” than a separate project by German, Spanish and Italian defense companies for a modern battle tank, and the two governments don’t expect the industrial project, which responds to a European Union-defined capability gap, to compete with their plans.

France has included €500 million ($533 million) in its 2024-2030 military budget for the MGCS project, which doesn’t include the costs for a mid-life overhaul of the country’s Leclerc tanks, according to Lecornu.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国和德国国防部长预计将于 2024 年与行业领军企业 KNDS 和莱茵金属公司就下一代坦克项目展开谈判，之后其他欧洲国家可能会加入该计划。

德国国防部长鲍里斯·皮斯托里乌斯周四在巴黎以西的埃夫勒空军基地举行的新闻发布会上表示，意大利、荷兰和“许多其他国家”都表示有兴趣加入主地面作战系统（MGCS）的开发项目。

法国国防部长塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努表示，各国有可能以“观察员”身份加入，作为第一步。他还说，德国和法国的高级军事领导人正在与意大利武装部队进行磋商，意大利武装部队也有其未来的装甲骑兵需求。

在两国陆军参谋长汇报了德国豹2和法国勒克莱尔主战坦克的替换作战需求后，柏林和巴黎将在今年余下的时间里敲定项目具体细节。皮斯托里乌斯表示，这将使两国政府能够更好地实现各自的军事目标，因为一旦谈判开始，MGCS承包商预计会提出他们自己对下一代坦克的设想。

勒科尔努表示，关于作战需求的协议“基本上表明，它既不会是新款豹式坦克，也不会是新款勒克莱尔坦克。技术突破将会是巨大的。”

据勒科尔努称，未来坦克预计将于2040年至2045年间投入使用。这位法国部长表示，他希望首批合同能在2024年签署。

据勒科尔努称，只有在法国和德国确定了未来坦克的规格之后，其他感兴趣的欧盟国家才会被邀请加入该项目。

据莱科尔努称，未来的坦克将采用模块化设计，包括可有人驾驶或无人驾驶的平台。他将具备传统的火力作战能力——“传统火力作战功能毋庸置疑不会消失”——同时还将配备电磁武器、电子战功能和激光武器，这位部长说道。

勒科尔努表示，MGCS 将需要具备硬杀伤能力的反应式防御、保护坦克的无人机、在互联环境中协调火力的人工智能功能，以及网络安全方面的技术飞跃将是“绝对巨大的”。

皮斯托瑞斯表示，法国和德国将在未来几天讨论如何将该项目的工作划分为几个“支柱”。两国正借鉴其联合开展的“未来作战空中系统”项目，该项目已明确划分了包括战斗机、发动机、无人机和作战云架构在内的支柱，每个支柱都分配给不同的承包商团队，并由一个国家牵头。

莱科尔努表示，乌克兰战争表明了高强度冲突中坦克维护的成本，控制作战支援成本将是未来坦克选择中的一个“重要因素”。

皮斯托瑞斯表示，MGCS 比德国、西班牙和意大利国防公司为现代主战坦克开展的另一个项目“先进得多”，两国政府并不认为这个旨在弥补欧盟界定的能力差距的工业项目会与他们的计划构成竞争。

据勒科尔努称，法国已在其 2024-2030 年军费预算中为 MGCS 项目拨款 5 亿欧元（5.33 亿美元），但这并不包括对该国勒克莱尔坦克进行中期大修的费用。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。