BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2023) Paris and Berlin, after the coordination stage, have taken concrete steps to implement their joint project of a novel tank, which is expected to go into production by 2024, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday.
"We have been in a diplomatic (stage), but today we enter the operational stage of the program (to build the tank)," Lecornu said during a joint press conference with his German counterpart.
Pistorius noted that both parties would sign the main document for the project by September, and the first tangible results could be achieved by 2035.
Both ministers emphasized that it was not about building the next generation of Germany's Leopards 2 or France's Leclercs, but rather developing a brand-new model of tank equipped with state-of-the-art technologies. Lecornu pointed out that the conflict in Ukraine had demonstrated the key role of "interoperability."
The joint French-German project of a Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) tank was launched in 2012 to replace the fleets of heavy Leopard 2 and Leclerc tanks by 2040.
