For many fans of military equipment, the main news of the past week was the solemn ceremony of handing over the first modernized Leopard 2A7V main battle tank to the Bundeswehr. It will be recalled that it took place on October 29 in Munich. "Tanks are sexy, they are the quintessence of an obstinate offensive beginning with a long cannon sticking out insolently," - Pavel Felgenhauer, a journalist and military observer, once remarked. It's hard to argue.
But we have a lot of room for other discussions about armored vehicles and everything related to it. What's the best main battle tank? Do I need to switch to 152 mm caliber? Do you need a new lightweight tank like the Griffin? As history shows, only practice can give answers to these questions, and many "beautiful" theories often end in nothing. Suffice it to recall that before World War II, many considered light tanks to be the basis of armored forces …
Modern Germans, unlike the Germans of those years, do not like to experiment. At least when it comes to military equipment. Recall that they still do not have a single fifth-generation fighter of their own or purchased from other countries. There are no nuclear submarines and, of course, there is no analogue of the "Armata". But there is the proven and adored Leopard 2 all over the world.
What is the new version? In short, nothing revolutionary. However, the latest electronics, excellent protection and the powerful L55 / L55A1 cannon (apparently, the Leopard 2A7V will use both versions of the cannon) will put the German machine in a better position even in the late 2020s. Add to this the MKM programming system, which allows you to fire high-explosive DM11 programmable rounds and comfortable conditions for the crew, and you have perhaps the best production tank of our time.
Franco-German "miracle"
But then a few questions pop up. Firstly, sooner or later, the equipment will still have to be changed for something: Leopard 2, after all, has been produced since 1979. Secondly (and this is perhaps more important), Berlin is trying to get involved in large-scale military projects of other, primarily European allies. And above all - the French. In this regard, the most indicative is the project of the sixth generation pan-European fighter, known as the Next Generation Fighter or, if convenient, FCAS (this is the name of the entire program).
With tanks, everything is not so simple. At last year's Eurosatory, the KNDS Group, a joint venture between France's Nexter Defense Systems and Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, presented the EMBT (European Main Battle Tank) program. A strange and mysterious "character" is hidden behind the formidable name. This is nothing more than a hybrid of the French Leclerc and the German Leopard 2, not very popular in the world. The hull, chassis, engine and transmission were taken from the German tank. From Leclerc - a turret with a gun, fire control system, automatic loader and other equipment.
The logic is this: the chassis of a German tank is famous for its reliability, while the Leclerc is famous for its automatic loader. Needless to say, not everyone liked this "original" approach. “You can't just mechanically cross two tanks of slightly different concepts,” said military expert Viktor Murakhovsky in this regard.
It's hard to disagree. The idea is not quite cheap, and there are almost no real conceptual advantages here. The automatic loader is, of course, good. But manual loading was never a problem for the Germans, and they could provide a high rate of fire. But whether the French machine gun will work reliably and "as it should" is difficult to say.
Large caliber
The next direction of development of the European tank looks more natural. This is an increase in the caliber of the main gun. In January, it was announced at the International Armored Vehicles 2019 conference that the French defense giant Nexter is testing a modified Leclerc armed with a 140mm cannon. Even then, modernized in this way, the Leclerc fired more than 200 successful shots. At the same time, Nexter claims that the new gun is 70 percent more effective than Western 120mm tank guns.
By the way, one involuntarily recalls the Soviet "Object 195" with a gun carriage, which they wanted to equip with a 152-mm gun 2A83. And also rumors about the possible installation of a gun of this caliber on the T-14 tank. Now, in light of the financial and technical problems of the Russian military-industrial complex, all this is clearly not on the agenda. The maximum you can count on is a small-scale production of the T-14 and other samples based on the "Armata". Recall that the T-72B3 was chosen as the basis for the armored forces of the Russian Federation.
New generation
Most importantly, the project to equip the Leclerc tank with a 140mm cannon did not arise out of nowhere. It is part of the larger Main Ground Combat System, or MGCS, program designed to give Europe a groundbreaking new tank. Which will not be a modernized version of Leclerc or Leopard and will be able to give EU countries a conceptual advantage in battle.
What is MGCS, broadly speaking? At the beginning of 2016, the joint French-German enterprise KNDS provided the first information. According to the first information, we are talking about a tank of the so-called classic layout: it will become the embodiment of the many years of experience of European tank builders.
However, things are not so simple. The first major stumbling block was the choice of weapon. Die Welt recently wrote in its article “Mehr Feuerkraft und Ladeautomatik - Wettstreit um die Superkanone” that a serious controversy flared up around the main caliber. While German Rheinmetall offers a 130mm cannon, French partners want the aforementioned 140mm caliber. The Germans focus on the competitive advantages of their gun, in particular, the possibility of its installation on the "Leopard" and "Abrams". At the same time, Rheinmetall claims a 50% increase in firepower due to an increase in caliber. For the first time, we recall, "Rheinmetall" showed a new gun in 2016: since then, his confidence in his righteousness has only strengthened. According to the data presented, during the tests, the gun at a distance of 1000 meters put all ten shots on an A4 sheet.
At the same time, of course, the French 140-mm cannon is potentially more powerful and "revolutionary". On the other hand, if you choose it, the mass of ammunition will be higher, and the load on the gun barrel and its wear will increase. So here the choice of a weapon for a European tank is a debatable issue. As well as equipping the T-14 with a new 152-mm cannon.
What is the end result? The Europeans want to get the new tank, like the sixth generation fighter, in the 2030s. This is a very realistic time frame for which you can create a fundamentally new car and bring it "to mind." If you look more broadly, then the fate of MGCS directly depends on Russia. After all, both the new tank and the Next Generation Fighter became, in a broad sense, a response to the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the hostilities in the Donbass. All this gave a huge stimulus to both the American and European military-industrial complex. And the main thing is money that can be used to implement new programs.
