French defense boss marks German industry over sluggish tank program

STUTTGART, Germany — The French defense minister has affirmed that France and Germany’s cooperation on Europe’s two largest arms programs remains ongoing, as lawmakers this week expressed concern over diverging political and industrial interests between Berlin and Paris.

Members of the Senate’s commission for foreign and military affairs sought answers from Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu during a Feb. 28 hearing about the state of Franco-German cooperation on weapons programs. Two major joint procurement efforts — the Future Combat Air System, or FCAS, and the Main Ground Combat System, or MGCS — are taking years longer than planned to get off the ground.

The FCAS program — which aims to replace the fighter fleets of France, Germany and Spain, and provide a swath of new weapons and capabilities, by 2040 — only several months ago entered the Phase 1B pre-demonstrator step to develop a next-generation fighter prototype. That’s two years later than originally expected.

Meanwhile, the MGCS program, which is meant to modernize the German and French tank inventories by 2045, has not moved past its study and design phase.

Despite the delays, Lecornu expressed support for both programs, and for Franco-German cooperation writ large, during his hearing with lawmakers. Speaking specifically to the tank program, he appeared to attribute the delays largely to discord between the ambitions of the German government and its industry vendors as well as industry infighting.

“What the chancellor and ministers want does not always correspond to what industry wants,” he told the committee, referring to Germany’s Olaf Scholz. Lecornu also acknowledged the same can be true within his own office and with French vendors.

The German Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

But even more to do with Germany is the fact that Berlin’s industry players are not always in agreement with each other, Lecornu explained. “We can see that sometimes we ourselves are spectators to disagreements, not internally to the Germany political apparatus but within the German industry apparatus,” Lecornu said.

German company Rheinmetall and European business KNDS were awarded an 18-month contract for the MGCS System Architecture Definition Study—Part 1 in 2020. KNDS is a joint venture between Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter.

Per Rheinmetall, the German and French industrial partners have jointly developed a concept for the implementation and realization of the MGCS technology demonstrators. They submitted that concept to the French Directorate General of Armaments and the German Defence Ministry in October 2022 for a review and decision, a company spokesman wrote in a March 2 email to Defense News.

“From an industry perspective, the next steps are therefore currently on the official side,” the spokesperson said. KNDS did not respond to requests for comment by Defense News.

Meanwhile, Germany last year announced plans to procure several dozen American-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to replace the nuclear-carrying portion of its PA 200 Tornado fleet. Although the F-35 will not fully overhaul the German Air Force’s fighter fleet and the military maintains it is committed to the FCAS program, French industry officials pointed to the decision as a display that Germany was choosing to buy American over European collaboration .

Lecornu asserted that France needs to maintain these cooperative programs with Germany, not only to reduce the cost of such weapons to the French taxpayer but because of the importance of European partnerships writ large.

Remarking that Franco-German cooperation efforts — and the tension that can ensue — go back to the 1959-1969 French presidency of Charles de Gaulle, Lecornu asserted that patience is key, and that “whatever happens, we will need an aircraft, and we will need a tank.”

The ongoing debate over providing Ukraine with fighter jets also loomed over the commission meeting. Lecornu was questioned about France’s extra stock of 12 Mirage 2000C fighter aircraft, and whether he envisions providing them to Ukraine, which is fighting a Russian invasion.

Lecornu did not refer to the Mirages by name, but said the French government is holding discussions with Ukraine regarding fighter jets.

“There is no taboo on this topic,” he said, noting that the challenge of providing fighter jets to Kyiv rests in the maintenance capacity, as well as training Ukrainian pilots.

Vivienne Machi is a reporter based in Stuttgart, Germany, contributing to Defense News' European coverage. She previously reported for National Defense Magazine, Defense Daily, Via Satellite, Foreign Policy and the Dayton Daily News. She was named the Defence Media Awards' best young defense journalist in 2020.

德国斯图加特——法国国防部长重申，法国和德国在欧洲两大武器项目上的合作仍在继续。此前，议员们本周对柏林和巴黎之间政治和工业利益的分歧表示担忧。

2月28日，参议院外交和军事事务委员会举行听证会，向武装部队部长塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努询问法德两国在武器项目上的合作现状。两项主要的联合采购项目——未来空中作战系统（FCAS）和主力地面作战系统（MGCS）——的启动时间比原计划晚了数年。

FCAS计划旨在到2040年替换法国、德国和西班牙的战斗机机队，并提供一系列新型武器和能力。该计划几个月前才进入第一阶段B的预验证阶段，以开发下一代战斗机原型。这比原计划晚了两年。

与此同时，旨在到 2045 年实现德国和法国坦克现代化的 MGCS 计划仍处于研究和设计阶段。

尽管项目有所延误，莱科尔努在与议员的听证会上仍表达了对这两个项目以及法德合作整体的支持。在谈到坦克项目时，他似乎将延误主要归咎于德国政府与其工业供应商之间的目标分歧以及行业内部的权力斗争。

“总理和部长们想要的并不总是与行业想要的一致，”他告诉委员会，并提到了德国总理奥拉夫·朔尔茨。勒科尔努也承认，这种情况在他自己的办公室以及与法国供应商之间也可​​能发生。

德国国防部未回应置评请求。

但莱科尔努解释说，与德国关系更大的是，柏林的产业界人士并非总能达成一致。“我们有时会看到，我们自己也成了分歧的旁观者，这些分歧并非来自德国政治体制内部，而是来自德国产业体制内部，”莱科尔努说道。

2020 年，德国莱茵金属公司和欧洲企业 KNDS 获得了一份为期 18 个月的 MGCS 系统架构定义研究——第一部分合同。KNDS 是德国克劳斯-玛菲·韦格曼公司和法国奈克斯特公司的合资企业。

据莱茵金属公司称，这家德国和法国的工业合作伙伴共同制定了MGCS技术演示验证机的实施和实现方案。该公司发言人在3月2日发给《防务新闻》的电子邮件中写道，他们已于2022年10月将该方案提交给法国军备总局和德国国防部进行审查和决定。

发言人表示：“从行业角度来看，下一步行动目前仍由官方主导。”《防务新闻》就此事联系KNDS公司寻求置评，但未获回应。

与此同时，德国去年宣布计划采购数十架美国制造的F-35联合攻击战斗机，以替换其PA 200“旋风”战斗机机队中可携带核弹头的部件。尽管F-35不会彻底更新德国空军的战斗机机队，而且军方也坚称将继续推进未来空中作战系统（FCAS）项目，但法国业界人士指出，德国的这一决定表明，德国选择购买美国产品而非与欧洲合作。

勒科尔努断言，法国需要与德国维持这些合作项目，不仅是为了降低法国纳税人购买此类武器的成本，更是因为这关乎欧洲伙伴关系的整体重要性。

勒科尔努指出，法德合作努力以及由此可能产生的紧张局势可以追溯到戴高乐1959年至1969年担任法国总统时期，他断言耐心是关键，“无论发生什么，我们都需要飞机，我们都需要坦克。”

关于向乌克兰提供战斗机的争论也笼罩着委员会会议。莱科尔努被问及法国额外储备的12架幻影2000C战斗机，以及他是否考虑将这些飞机提供给正在抵抗俄罗斯入侵的乌克兰。

勒科尔努没有直接提及幻影战斗机，但他表示法国政府正在与乌克兰就战斗机问题进行磋商。

“在这个话题上没有什么禁忌，”他说道，并指出向基辅提供战斗机的挑战在于维护能力以及培训乌克兰飞行员。

薇薇安·马奇是驻德国斯图加特的一名记者，主要负责《防务新闻》的欧洲报道。她此前曾为《国家防务杂志》、《防务日报》、《卫星通讯》、《外交政策》和《代顿每日新闻》撰稿。2020年，她荣获防务媒体奖最佳青年防务记者称号。