By Pierre Tran
PARIS – France has scrambled to limit the damage after its chief of the defense staff told parliamentarians Oct. 8 that partner Germany has pulled out of a landmark project to build a new heavy tank and uncrewed vehicles, known as the main ground combat system (MGCS).
There was talk of Berlin and Paris focusing instead on a land-based combat cloud linking the two armies, seen by defense specialists as a plan B. The scaled-back land systems deal revived memories of how Germany bailed out of building a new generation fighter (NGF) with France, and switched to an air combat cloud as part of the planned European future combat air system (FCAS).
“The outcome isn’t good,” the French chief of staff, air force general Fabien Mandon, told the defense committee of the National Assembly, the lower house.
“We had hoped to build a future tank in cooperation with the Germans, but unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the Germans have withdrawn from the project,” he said at the parliamentary hearing on the 2027 defense budget.
The military glass appeared half full, as French and German army officers had worked together on the tank studies, but the industrial glass for arms companies looked half empty.
“It’s not a complete failure – it’s an important decision by Germany, but our land forces have worked together for several years to determine what a future main battle tank should look like,” the air force general said. “It wasn’t a waste of time. But from an industrial standpoint, this isn’t good news.”
Mandon appeared to have flown into political flak. The chief of the defense staff (Chef d’état-major des armées, or CEMA) is a former pilot of the Mirage F1CT fighter and has flown 144 combat missions.
The French armed forces minister, Catherine Vautrin, and her German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, told television reporters the next day that the tank project was alive and well and going ahead. The ministers were visiting Le Haillan, a space and defense industrial site near Bordeaux in southwest France, on Oct. 9, while German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a farewell state visit to Paris.
That ministerial message came soon after the chief of staff clarified his remarks to parliament, with his office posting a press release on the social platform X. The general’s statement went out just before midnight in type so small it was hard to read, a French reporter said on a private message circuit.
There were military and ministerial efforts to contain the damage, but defense specialists said the chief of staff had confirmed what had been suspected, namely that diverging industrial and commercial interests had undermined an attempt to boost European cooperation.
French President Emmanuel Macron made the pursuit of European autonomy and sovereignty a hallmark policy of his two five-year terms. That call for a strong Europe gained fresh momentum with the reelection of President Donald Trump and his review of U.S. forces based in Europe, while placing commercial interests first.
Macron’s time as French head of state and commander in chief comes to an end May 2, when the second round of elections for the next president is due to be held.
The MGCS tank is intended to replace the French Leclerc and German Leopard 2 main battle tanks, with the former expected to be withdrawn from service around 2037.
Meanwhile in air combat, France has earmarked €628 million in next year’s spending, to develop a “Super Rafale” F5 version, business daily Les Echos said in a video report. Work to upgrade the Rafale to a more capable F5 standard could be launched in December if the 2027 budget bill is passed, with up to €3 billion for eventual orders.
The F5 work would develop technology to help France build its “future combat aircraft,” the national alternative to a European new generation fighter in the FCAS project, cancelled by partner nations France, Germany, and Spain.
Lack of Alignment
“It’s always complicated,” a consultant said, when asked about lessons learned on the Franco-German tank project. Except for a few cases, there have been difficulties in aligning political, operational and industrial requirements on the main platforms, and in that respect the main ground combat system resembled the future combat air system.
The problems of alignment included different versions of the Tiger attack helicopter, lack of common military space satellites, and limited cooperation on warships, the consultant said.
The main assets for MGCS were tanks, autonomous armored vehicles, and new effectors, while a new fighter had made FCAS a standout project for European cooperation.
The MGCS program appears to be moving towards a combat cloud.
“That is far from the initial scope but at least it will allow German and French armies to interconnect, share and organise a tactical situation, and allow other armies beyond these two countries, even with different assets, to cooperate,” the consultant said. “That is not too bad.”
A defense specialist said Germany’s withdrawal from the new MGCS tank was “entirely predictable from the start. France has lost 10 years.”
Germany enjoyed a “quasi monopoly” on the tank market in Europe, and was developing a new version, Leopard 3, for that market, the specialist said.
Apart from the German builder, then Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and now KNDS Deutschland, there had been other tank builders in Europe, the specialist said.
BAE Systems in the U.K. sold control of its tank business to Rheinmetall, a German arms company.
In Italy, Rheinmetall was building tanks for the Italian army. The former Italian partnership Fiat Iveco-Oto Melara built the Ariete tank in the 1990s before closing the line.
In France, there had been “political blindness,” the specialist said, with the administration, chief of staff, and Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) procurement office failing to draw up a plan B for MGCS.
Poland, meanwhile, has bought South Korea’s K2 tank from Hyundai Rotem.
A French corporate pitch for the elusive plan B could be seen at the Eurosatory land weapons trade show, where the KNDS stand showed a prototype model of “Capint,” an intermediate capability tank proposed to the French army. The concept tank used a German-built Leopard 2 chassis and a French-built uncrewed gun turret, armed with a 120mm Ascalon smoothbore cannon. That would be an interim solution to tide the French army over until delivery of an MGCS tank, now pushed back to the late 2040s.
MGCS had been due to deliver a new tank and related uncrewed vehicles in 2035, but delivery was first pushed back to 2040 and has now slipped toward the end of the 2040s.
France has not ordered the Capint, and there was concern in military and political circles over the use of a German-built chassis, website MetaDefense reported, adding that France was heading for a general election in a few months, which would cast doubt on any decision.
Military Retreat, Ministerial Riposte
The French chief of staff’s clarification on his remarks in parliament came in a late-night statement to the press, in which Mandon said the situation had not changed since parliament’s approval of the update to the 2024-2030 military programming law.
“The industrial offer made in early 2026 was incompatible with the replacement of the present tanks, needed by 2037, and the German side had also chosen to launch a national study to replace the Leopard 2 tank,” the general said in the statement.
The MGCS entry into service has been pushed back to the end of the 2040s, he said, and France has opted to launch an “intermediate capability,” drawing on the most modern technology and open to fitting “innovative functionalities” of the MGCS on an incremental basis.
“Effectively, even though postponed, this program is being pursued and maintains a major interest re-centered on development of a greater connectivity, collaborative combat, automation, and robotics,” he said.
The French defense minister said the following day, “We would like to say, with my colleague, minister Boris Pistorius, how much the MGCS remains a live project.”
In France, the Leclerc tank would come to the end of its operational life in 2035-37, she said.
“That is why we need an intermediary tank,” she said, adding France was working with Germany on the MGCS, which was a new generation tank with important functions.
The German minister backed up his French counterpart with effusive support for MGCS.
“Project MGCS is not over, it is not dead, no-one has put an end to it, on the contrary,” he said.
“This is a flagship project in Franco-German cooperation in the domain of land systems,” he said. “I am very happy there has never been any ambiguity on this subject. We both know how important this project is.”
There might have been problems in the past, but lessons had been learned.
The German minister added, “Yes, there have been in the past projects which did not come to fruition, in which we made mistakes. But the main thing is that we draw lessons from our mistakes…that is why MGCS is absolutely not threatened and constitutes a major project of the future for our two nations, for our two armed forces.”
Germany pulled out of the new fighter project in June at the Berlin air show following a dispute between the French prime contractor Dassault Aviation and German partner Airbus Defence and Space over leadership in building the fighter. That left France and Germany focusing on a combat cloud for military aviation, cutting back the FCAS project, which had previously carried an estimated price tag of some €100 billion including the fighter.
A Price Seen Too High
An industrial offer to build a technology demonstrator for the MGCS tank was worth billions of euros, the defense specialist said.
The consultant said the French and German authorities, which worked through the Combined Project Team, did not enter into negotiations with industry on a proposal submitted in early 2026 for the first phase of MGCS. The industrial joint venture, MGCS Project Company, submitted its offer following a request for proposal for the first phase.
The project company comprises KNDS France and KNDS Deutschland, Rheinmetall, and Thales, each holding an equal share of the company. The company is based in Cologne, Germany.
France and Germany launched MGCS Phase 1A on April 26, 2024, consisting of eight pillars: platform, main weapon, innovative weapons, onboard systems, simulation, sensors, overall protection, and infrastructure.
The German Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support of the Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) led the negotiations on the government side.
The French DGA conducted negotiations on the FCAS program, with France at the helm.
Germany Prepares for Leopard 3
The German Bundestag has voted development funds for the Leopard 3 tank, which could enter service around 2032, the defense specialist said. An upgraded Leopard 3 could have a 40-year operational life, allowing repayment of development cost.
KNDS Deutschland has some 600 Leopard 2 tanks on its order book, the specialist said. There has been a reshuffle at Projekt System & Management (PSM), which will be the prime contractor on the Leopard 3.
KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall Landsysteme were equal joint venture partners in PSM, whereas KNDS Deutschland had been prime contractor and Rheinmetall the subcontractor when PSM was set up for the Puma infantry fighting vehicle program.
The Leopard 3 program was backed by the hefty German defense budget, the specialist said.
Germany’s 2027 core defense budget would rise to €109 billion from €82 billion in 2026, Reuters has reported, with overall 2027 German defense spending due to rise to €130.1 billion, once funds for Ukraine, civil protection, intelligence, and IT security were included.
Germany has exempted defense spending from its limits on debt funding.
In France, the defense ministry said Oct. 8 that the administration has proposed an extra €6.5 billion in the draft 2027 defense budget, to total €63.4 billion, up 11.4 percent from 2026.
The budget bill is going through parliament for approval, with the center-right government under pressure to slash public spending at a time of social unrest, notably school pupils taking to the streets, calling for better conditions, smaller classes and fully staffed schools in poor neighborhoods.
Studies for Future Tanks
The European Commission is backing two research studies on future tanks and on upgrading present fleets, supported by the European Defence Fund.
There is Marte, or Main Armoured Tank of Europe, a two-year €20 million design study led by Germany with 11 European Union member states. The Marte Arge joint venture, led by KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall, runs the study, with partners Indra of Spain, Leonardo of Italy, and Saab of Sweden.
Santa Barbara, the Spanish unit of General Dynamics, is part of the study group.
The commission accepted the concept of operations submitted and cleared the study group to work on design and architecture of the tank system and subsystems.
There is also FMBTech, a three-year €19 million study for what the commission calls “the best innovative technologies” for a future main battle tank. France is the lead nation, with Thales leading the industrial group. There is a strong French presence, with Arquus, the French units of Hensoldt and MBDA, Nexter Systems, and Safran Electronics and Defense in the 26-strong industrial group from 13 member states.
Elephant in the Room
Germany was the “elephant in the room,” Liana Fix, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Helsinki Security Forum.
The question was not “if” Germany was rearming but “how,” she said. People were happy Berlin was rearming in light of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
“Is it European enough?” she said. “Would that investment be primarily national? Is Germany trying to integrate defense industries?”
Ignoring these questions would be at “its own peril,” she said. German dominance was an issue to confront – not military dominance – but Germany was becoming “a very, very powerful country in Europe,” she said.
Fix has been on a speaking tour since publication of her book, Germany Rearmed: The Return of War and the End of Illusions (Hurst Publishers-Oxford University Press). The Helsinki Security Forum ran Oct. 2-4.
On arms production, a senior German official told reporters May 29 that European governments should avoid a “defense production nationalism.”
Berlin should spend a certain percentage of its military budget on subcontractors elsewhere in Europe, such as France, Italy, and Spain, the official said.
“We want to be not just more European in terms of more European political decision-making, we also want to make sure we are going to be more European in terms of making our equipment,” the official said. “I hope our governments will see to it that it’s not going to lead to a patchwork situation but to a more cohesive situation.”
Postponing the MGCS tank could be added to the list of projects that French media have reported as hurting European – and French – interests, namely Berlin opting out of an upgrade of the Franco-German Tiger helicopter to a Mk3 standard, ordering Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft instead of working with France on the future Maritime Airborne Warning System, and promoting the German-led European Sky Shield Initiative, based on German, Israeli, and U.S.-built missiles. Paris resented Sky Shield’s exclusion of the joint SAMP/T new generation surface-to-air missile system from France and Italy.
There had been a plan to work together on a joint artillery system, dubbed Common Indirect Fire System, but that also fell through.