Franco-German agreement on the new MGCS main battle tank signed

The Federal Ministry of Defense announced the signing of two agreements on the future heavy land combat system between Germany and France at noon.

Franco-German KNDS Group at EUROSATORY-2018 unveiled this Leopard 2/Leclerc hybrid MBT

“The Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) project, to be implemented under German leadership, is to replace the German Leopard 2 main battle tanks and the French Leclerc main battle tanks from the mid-2030s. With the project, Germany and France are sending an important signal for European cooperation in defense policy, ”said the Ministry of Defense in today's communication. “Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and her French counterpart Florence Parly have signed a framework agreement that sets out the project organization and management structures. Due to the corona situation, the ministers could not meet to sign together.”

The Leopard 2 and Leclerc main battle tanks, which were introduced in the German and French armed forces, were designed in the 1980s and have experienced extensive increases in combat value since then. Since these main battle tanks are to be replaced by 2035, Germany and France launched the joint MGCS project in 2012. The project is divided into five major phases: analysis of operational needs, concept study, development and technological capability verification, integration and system demonstration, and ultimately the production of the system. The first two phases have already been successfully completed. However, a binationally coordinated prioritization of individual requirements (high level requirements) has so far been lacking.

“Both countries should benefit equally from the cooperation, which is why the contracts to be concluded are based on 50 percent financing between Germany and France. In addition, both nations should be granted sufficient intellectual property rights for the future intended use of the work results, ”the Ministry of Defense writes about the content of the agreement. “The ministers therefore also signed an Implementing Arrangement 1, which forms the basis for the commissioning of a system architecture definition study. The budget committee of the German Bundestag has only recently cleared the way for the commissioning of this two-year study. Here, too, Germany and France share the costs. The system architecture is a prerequisite for the development of a technology demonstrator with which the German and French requirements for the MGCS can be checked. ”