On Wednesday, April 8, 2026, France’s Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans, Catherine Vautrin, presented an update on the 2024–2030 Military Programming Law (Loi de programmation militaire, LPM) and an additional 36 billion EUR for national defense during a report to the National Assembly. She stated that the ministry intends to build a French interim tank because of the 10-year delay to the Franco-German MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) program. A decision on the matter is to be made later this year.
EMBT-EDT 140 / Zdjęcie: Jakub Link-Lenczowski, MILMAG
“It will not be the last tank of the old generation, but the first tank of the new generation,” Catherine Vautrin said, explaining that the 2024–2030 Military Programming Law already includes an interim tank capability as the first building block on the road toward MGCS. She added that France will launch an interim tank capability program to bridge the gap between the end of the Leclerc’s service life and the arrival of MGCS.
The delay of the MGCS program is said to stem in part from Germany’s decision to pursue the Leopard 2AX, also referred to as Leopard 3, as on December 15, 2025, the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) approved the expansion of the joint venture Projekt System & Management GmbH (PSM) to include work on a new tank. In addition, the Bundeswehr is set to field the Leopard 2A8 in the coming years, alongside export orders from elsewhere in Europe.
Berlin is also promoting the pan-European program codenamed MARTE (Main ARmored Tank of Europe), while France’s Thales is overseeing the European future tank project FMBTech (Technologies for Existing and Future Main Battle Tanks) within a consortium of 26 entities from 13 EU member states, including three from Poland, as well as Norway.
The French tank backed by the government is expected to feature a domestically developed turret and a chassis from the Franco-German joint venture KNDS. The French Procurement Agency (Direction générale de l’Armement, DGA) is already in talks with industry on the matter. The interim tank is intended to cover the operational gap until 2037–2040, when the upgraded Leclerc XLR/rénové tanks are due to be retired, before the introduction of MGCS, which is now estimated to arrive no earlier than 2045, instead of the originally planned 2035.
It is worth noting that reports from France had already emerged in 2023, when then-Minister Sébastien Lecornu spoke about considering the acquisition of interim tanks. As for specific solutions, French lawmakers had earlier asked industry about the possibility of putting into serial production the EMBT (Euro Main Battle Tank) technology demonstrator first shown at Eurosatory 2018. Since then, two next-generation tank demonstrators were unveiled at Eurosatory 2024: the EMBT-EDT 140 with the new 140 mm ASCALON (Autoloaded and SCALable Outperforming guN) cannon, and the Leclerc Evolution with a 120 mm variant of that weapon. Both could serve as starting points for the interim tank. Paris is working to make a larger-caliber gun the standard for the next generation of tanks.
As for the Franco-German program itself, the MGCS Project Company GmbH joint venture, made up of KNDS Deutschland, KNDS France, Rheinmetall AG, and Thales, submitted an initial offer that proved too costly for the DGA, reportedly amounting to twice the planned budget. According to Les Échos, a revised offer submitted on January 30 is currently under consideration in Berlin and Paris. So far, the only contract awarded in the program, dated March 11 this year, concerns an integrated power-pack propulsion unit to be developed by Rolls-Royce Power Systems in cooperation with ZF Friedrichshafen AG.
