On April 26th, an operational memorandum was signed between France and Germany for the European main battle tank: Main Ground Combat System –MGCS
the respective Defense Ministers. Mr. Sebastien Lecornu ( France) and Mr. Boris Pistorius (Germany) signed the protocol in reference to what has already been carried out by their respective Armies on the identification of technical-operational needs and harmonization between Armee de Terre and Heer, essential for the industrial development of the Tank.
The stated requirements include, multi-environment/multi-field combat (M2MC) with high intensity and greater autonomy in tactical processes. The problems identified in MGCS are always the same which, cyclically, sees the interest and the disinterest of many EU countries. This is inherent in the nature of the project itself, which inevitably requires adequate maturation and continuous adjustments and also unfortunately because the political part often takes precedence over the purely technical-military one.
As far as military matters are concerned, the proposed tank design has the ambitious claim of replacing two heavyweight tanks: for France the Leclerc and for Germany the internationally successful Leopard 2.
It is important to remember that already in 2023 the EU Directorate General for Defense Industry and Space (DG-DEFIS) had identified the following standards and functional requirements for the future MGCS:
- Minimum speed of 80 km/h on the road and minimum 50km/h in OR (flat terrain) and average range of 600 km;
- Ability to shoot on the move even at high speeds;
- High degree of protection against IEDs, RPGs, HEAT, ATGMs, loitering munitions, UAS, electronic warfare
- Maximum crew of 3;
- Anti-drone and drone swarm capabilities;
- Ability to operate in silent mode and low thermal impact;
- Overall mass around 70 t. and around 10X3.8×2.5 m.
- Be transported and compatible with European road systems (bridges, tunnels…), railway network compatibility and A400M air transportability;
- Use of weapon systems and technologies already available;
- Lower maintenance costs and longer intervals compared to the average tank in use.
Any military expert, advisor or serving soldier will notice that the requests are not impossible even if some, for example, compatibility with the entire European road/rail network, tunnels and bridges could well create some problems, using the current technologies.
There is no doubt that the design of a new tank will take years and billions of euros to achieve. The result will be a product with a very high unit cost which will probably eventually reach around 10 million euros each. As a reference, an expensive Merkava Il-IDF in the latest versions it is around over 5 million euros today and is considered too expensive by Israel. By way of reference with the Israeli Tank, which has many differing design aspects, both technical, such as the forward engine, a toilet inside, four not three soldiers are needed to operate it in a greater operating space than conventional tanks. Although smaller and lighter, it does not exceed 60 km/h and has a theoretical range of 500 km. All this without going into the merits of weapon systems and hull protections, is proof of how challenging and ambitious the MGCS Tank Project is.
A tank has always been a key part of the battlefield but, given modern threats such as drones and loitering munitions, requires new and advanced technology to meet these threats, as has been seen in Ukraine by both Russian and Ukranian losses. This is not a good reason to invest in new tanks and to bury MGCS for mere political reasons, after all, large international collaborations have always taken place: for planes, for ships and why not for a tank?
Of course, if MGCS is limited to France and Germany it will struggle, with the interests of other countries, such as the UK, Holland, Spain and the Baltic countries, MGCS could prove a winner.