“We must rejoice in having stronger armies.”

The Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, is meeting with his counterpart Boris Pistorius at the Evreux air base on Thursday, September 21, to revive the Franco-German project for the MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) tank. This is an opportunity to discuss the defense disputes that strain the relationship between the two countries.

A few days ago, the German press mentioned a new European tank project involving Germans, Spaniards, and Italians, which caused concern in France. Does it compete with the Franco-German MGCS project, launched in 2017 and currently stalled?

Boris Pistorius : Vous avez raison, il existe un projet européen de développement d’un char d’assaut moderne. Mais ce n’est pas un projet lancé par des Etats. Ce sont des entreprises privées de l’industrie de l’armement qui y participent.

Ce projet ne représente donc pas pour nous une alternative au MGCS. Sébastien Lecornu et moi-même sommes déterminés à poursuivre le projet MGCS et à poser ainsi les bases d’un des systèmes blindés le plus moderne au monde. Nos équipes et nous-mêmes nous retrouvons pour cela très régulièrement et menons des discussions intenses. Notre idée commune est de penser le MGCS comme un projet ouvert de façon à ce que d’autres partenaires membres de l’Union européenne [UE] puissent le rejoindre.

On sent une volonté politique de faire aboutir le MGCS, mais c’est plus compliqué entre l’industriel français Nexter et ses partenaires allemands Rheinmetall et KMW. Comment réussir à les faire s’entendre ?

B. P. : The defense industry sets its own goals. However, the MGCS is a project of the French and German governments. Therefore, it is our two governments that set the pace. We decide together on the different stages of its implementation. We will continue to work with the industry and jointly define the conditions for those participating in the project.

Sébastien Lecornu: It is up to the states to maintain the specifications, as they will be the clients for their own armies. With Boris Pistorius, we have made a pragmatic methodological choice, as we did for the launch of the SCAF [future combat aircraft], which is to facilitate a dialogue between our ground armies to ensure that we indeed need the same tank. We are discussing a tank for the next thirty, forty, or even fifty years.

With the MGCS, we are not just focusing on the replacement of the German Leopard or the French Leclerc, but rather on defining a next-generation weapons system with significant technological advancements. On Thursday, in Evreux, we will politically validate the operational requirements expressed by the headquarters of our two armies. This will allow us to then define “pillars” of responsibility, such as firepower [the tank’s weaponry], connectivity, etc.

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