Armin Papperger, head of the German defense concern Rheinmetall, did not rule out that France could withdraw from the joint German-French tank project Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) following the collapse of the program to create a common fighter Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
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Germany and France launched joint FCAS and MGCS initiatives almost simultaneously in 2017. The MGCS project includes the development of a ground combat system and a tank to replace the current German Leopard 2 and French Leclerc.
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“Today, I can’t say if there will be an MGCS at all.… There is always a danger (of France withdrawing from the project),” Papperger said in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
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At the same time, he stressed that no final decision has been made on this matter.
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According to the head of the German concern, the French side intends to cut the financing of the project by more than two times from the initial volume. He clarified that for almost ten years of the program’s existence, the four companies involved have received a total of only 25 million euros.
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Papperger also called the planned date for the commissioning of the new tank, which is scheduled for the 2040s, “insane.” According to him, against the background of uncertainty with MGCS, Rheinmetall, together with the Franco-German defense association KNDS, has been conducting an alternative development of the Leopard 3 tank for about a year. It is expected that these vehicles may enter service as early as the early 2030s.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced earlier a decision agreed with Macron to terminate a joint German-French project to create a new generation European fighter aircraft FCAS.
