It is a structuring project for European Defense, its name: MGCS, for main land combat system. This tank of the future, which is to replace the Leopard 2 in the German army and the Leclerc in the French army around 2040, is however struggling to take off. But the gun of this tank of the future already exists, KNDS France presented the Ascalon, but it is the subject of disagreements between manufacturers.
How difficult it is to get along when there are four of us. The tank of the future is carried by Thalès, Knds France – formerly Nexter- Knds Germany with Krauss Maffei Wegmann and finally Rheinemetall, the German defense giant. To guarantee equitable sharing of tasks, eight capacity pillars have been established. But the technological choices will be made after evaluation and on both sides of the Rhine we are fighting the cannon.
Rheinmettal chose a 130 mm tube, while Nexter offers the Ascalon two tubes to fire 120 and 140 mm shells.
The Ascalon features Super Shot architecture
And the Ascalon we saw last Eurosatory showmounted on a Leclerc Evolution tank, François Groshanny, future combat tank program director at KNDS France, presented it to us : “Four essential characteristics, firstly, a level of power delivered to the muzzle and to the target never equaled. We have the ability to change caliber in less than 30 minutes. Third characteristic, it is extremely compact so we use a so-called super shot architecture. We see here the ammunition which is a 140 ammunition which is therefore 130 millimeters high. Last thing, we are working a lot on the integrability of this gun in a turret to have a minimal footprint inside the turret and therefore we will be able to accommodate more personnel in the chassis. »
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On the French side, we fear that Rheinmetall and Krauss Maffei Wegmann combined will impose the German gun, despite the advance of Nexter which with the Ascalon offers a disruptive technology. “Ascalon is first and foremost a technology. “, François Groshanny, “Here, it is available in 140 and 120. But it is a technology that could be used in another caliber if it were likely to win the approval of a Western force interested in the gun. Everyone knows the Caesar canon well, which is today a world reference. We hope to make the Ascalon also the world reference, but this time, not in the artillery segment, but in the tank segment. »
Industrial arbitrations with serious consequences
There are therefore industrial arbitrations with serious consequences, especially in a context of the return of high-intensity war. France does not want to become an industrial dwarf in the battle tank segment, François Groshanny, “The war in Ukraine has brought symmetrical warfare back to the forefront. France was rather organized around a projection army. We see that this period is over. We are changing eras. And when we change eras and return to asymmetric combat, that means we have to re-equip with the entire range and not just with the mid-vehicle range. And then the tank segment is a strategic segment since it is around this segment that the land defense industry is in the process of being reorganized. We are in a bit of a concentration phase. We saw this with the creation of Knds Group which resulted from the merger of Nexter and Krauss Maffei Wegmann. But this concentration is more general since we now see that in MGCS we integrate Rheinmetall. So it is really on this product segment that the concentration of the industry is taking place and everyone is working on their areas of excellence to manage to build over time the Lego which will bring together the different manufacturers. »
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And so that this can “match” and satisfy French and German, the Directorate General of Armament puts forward the hypothesis of a coexistence of two different tanks, recalling that the common project in no way prefigures the nature of the tank of the future, MGCS being above all a system of systems with a combat cloud and drones. But which for the moment remains in draft form.