Project stalled: the German-French battle tank is making no progress

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The biggest problem at the moment is the development of the joint MGCS main battle tank. This will probably also be a topic during the meeting between German Defense Minister Borius Pistorius and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu on Thursday in Evreux.

It was effectively agreed that France would take the lead in FCAS fighter aircraft and Germany in tanks. At FCAS, where Dassault’s defense division and Airbus are mainly involved, governments have now put so much pressure on the work to move forward. Not so with the MGCS.

Dispute over the production of components

This is a shame for Germany, says Alexander Müller, defense policy spokesman for the German FDP faction. “With FCAS, Germany is spending a lot of research money (…) on a project whose value creation mainly takes place in France,” he told the AFP news agency. Germany has failed to promote the development of the main battle tank in such a way that German industry in turn benefits from French research funds.

In both cases, the core of the conflict is the question of which company develops which parts. In the case of the main battle tank, the Munich arms company KMW and the French tank manufacturer Nexter joined forces. From the French perspective, the project became unbalanced when the German company Rheinmetall also became involved.

Different ideas

Last week, the Handelsblatt also reported on the plans of German companies to develop a successor to the Leopard 2 together with partners from Italy, Spain and Sweden.

However, Pistorius emphasized that this was not an alternative to the MGCS. The German and French governments wanted to keep the shared tank. However, the project is open to other EU partners, the federal defense minister said. Italy already has observer status at the MGCS.

Despite all the political will, both sides have completely different ideas about the future tank, says defense expert Marc Chassillan. While Germany mainly wants to further develop the Leopard 2, France places more emphasis on future technologies such as robotics and connectivity. “The German industry is not interested in cooperating with France because it will not bring new customers,” says Chassillan.

On Thursday, Pistorius and his French colleague Lecornu want to politically strengthen the wish lists of the two general staffs in Evreux about what the future tank should be able to do. “We are determined to continue the MGCS project and thereby lay the foundation for one of the most modern tank systems in the world,” Pistorius emphasized.

The responsibilities of the companies involved can then be clarified. The tank project is also likely to be a key topic at the planned Franco-German government meeting in Hamburg in early October.

(SDA)

Source: Blick