Unquestionably, the Leclerc Evolution, presented by KNDS, was one of the flagship armored vehicles of the Eurosatory 2024 show, which closes its doors this Friday. This tank achieves, in fact, the synthesis between the Leclerc UAE (United Arab Emirates), more efficient than the French model thanks to its 1500 hp MTU engine, and the EMBT turret, presented in 2022 during the previous edition of this show .
Thus, the Leclerc Evolution can claim to be invited, without fading, into the new intermediate generation of combat tanks currently being designed, alongside the Leopard 2AX/3, developed by KNDS Germany, the KF51 Panther from Rheinmetall, the M1E3 Abrams American, and the Russian T-14, especially since it is presented, by its designers, as “ready to produce”, on an international market in high demand.
However, as the order of 18 Leopard 2A8s by the Bundeswehr launched the international career of this armored vehicle, ordered, or soon ordered, by four other European countries in just one year, the KNDS France super-tank must, above all, obtain an order from the French Army, to position itself credibly on the international scene.
Unfortunately for the Leclerc Evolution, and the KNDS strategy, the Army, like the Ministry of the Armed Forces, has, for the moment, no intention, nor the means, to acquire the new French tank.
The tank is not the priority of the Army today
And for good reason. By the French Army’s own admission, tanks are not its priority today. Indeed, it must, within the framework of the LPM 2024-2030, carry out numerous programs, which will be difficult to finance in their entirety, with, in particular, the deployment of the Griffon, Serval and Jaguar of the SCORPION program, the design and order of the VBAE to replace the VBL, the acquisition of the 109 Caesar MkII which must form the backbone of the French artillery, or the modernization of the Tiger attack helicopters and the entry into service of the H- 160M Guépard, for ALAT.
This forced modernization, the consequence of 25 years of underinvestment in replacing equipment, and intensive use of resources in Afghanistan, the Levant and the Sahel strip, leaves almost no room for maneuver for the state. -major of the Army, to possibly seize opportunities that emerged during this LPM.
Beyond these perfectly clear constraints over the next six years, the Army also suffers from a staff in which the light forces, Legion, marine troops and paratroopers, are over-represented compared to to line units, in particular battle tanks.
Thus, over the last 10 years, the Army has been commanded by a paratrooper (Gal Bosser), a legionnaire (Gal Burkhard) and a TdM (Gal Schill), while the position of Major General has been assumed by two paratroopers. (Gal de La Chesnais and Gomart), a genius (Gal Quevilly), and two horsemen (Gal Barrera and Béchon), but having cut their teeth, essentially, in light cavalry.
Given this tropism for light and maneuver forces, the modernization imperatives affecting all equipment, including the omnipresent range of medium armored vehicles, the recent operational history and budgetary constraints, it is hardly surprising that the capabilities of French line, battle tanks, heavy artillery and mechanized infantry, have hardly been at the center of the concerns of the Army staff.
Thus, while these means are at the heart of the conflict in Ukraine against Russia, they are the poor relations of the efforts made by the Army in the LPM 2024-2030, with a limited modernization of only 160 Leclerc, the order of 109 Caesar MkII called to form the entire 155 mm artillery of the AT and the absence of modernization of the VBCI.
KNDS strategy far from the French expectations that gave birth to it
In addition to these purely military and budgetary considerations, there is a probable political disappointment concerning the strategy, however relevant, established by KNDS, around the Leopard 2A-RC 3.0 and Leclerc Evolution, in preparation for the MGCS.
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