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19 hours ago, 2805662 said:

Can you elaborate? Thanks. 

At the start of the production of the UAE tanks, the armor packages volumes were similar to the french série 1 :
36769014_10156416670803187_7153846606532

But at the end, they all ended up with the same armor packages volumes as our série 2 tanks :
36919665_10156416670818187_3355816926579

Even old ones were retrofitted (as you can see with the apparent gap between the storage boxes) :
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLeT2-6VAAAgSPh.jpg:large

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  • 4 months later...

My German friend was on Foerderkreis Deutsches Heer symposium at KMW on 7th November and told that German procurement agency is now forming with their French counterparts a MGCS common office. This is to be located somewhere in Germany. They defined five key technology domains calling them: effectors, mobility, survivability, SDRI & targeting and C3I. Hope to get more information on the individual domain content. Getting interesting now to see how slowly they are starting....

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Rheinmetal tried to buy shares off KNDS yesterday which would de-facto give them control of KMW and of the whole MGCS program.

 

KMW rejected the offer on the basis that when they merged with Nexter, both party agreed not to attempt any other merge with a third party during a certain lapse of time.

 

Beside the obvious political implications (while KMW and Nexter were of roughly equivalent sizes, Rheinmetal is huge compared to  both of them), it would probably be a good idea for the consolidation of European defence industry in the long term.

Basically it would mean: leave the AFV and their ammunitions to the German (Rheinmetal-KMW-Nexter), the Planes to the French (Dassault-Thales-MBDA-Airbus) while the navy have yet to be consolidated between the French, Italians and the Spanish.

 

 

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2 hours ago, SH_MM said:

PL-01, is that you?

 

Now you see ^_^

It will be PL-02 now :lol:

 

But for real it's very possible that this design line comes from the people who created PL-01...

BTW it's confirmed that is one of versions of the new Polish tank, on which Rheinmetall works with Bumar-Labedy. One of the lighter ones...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Follow up on RhM wanting to buy shares of KNDS.

 

With this operation, RhM could control up to 75% of KNDS says UBS bank.

 

The French authority are apparently not opposed to the merge at the condition that a certain balance is being kept.

To that end the head of the French procurement agency met his German peer to discuss the different options.

3 scenarii are apparently on the table:

  • An Airbus like merge where there would be a parity between the shareholders regardless of the volume of activity they bring
  • RhM selling some of it's activities to shrink down before the merge
  • The French State buying KMW shares

In all cases, KNDS shares are frozen until the end of 2020 as both party initially agreed.

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  • 4 weeks later...
7 minutes ago, AssaultPlazma said:

 

Poland eh? I was under the impression they were gonna try to do their own indigenous design after that whole Leopard 2 deal fell through. 

I remember some talk here on the forum about Poland being interested in the program. 

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1 hour ago, AssaultPlazma said:

Has any country actually expressed interest in this thing? Seems kinda unnecessary since most European countries seem to operate the Leopard 2.  

 

The Leopard 2 will be phased out in 2035 (in the Bundeswehr) and the Leclerc in 2040, after that the overall number of those tanks in service will most likely go down.

 

So after that, besides the MGCS, it will be either upgrading existing Leopard 2 or go for the EMBT (if it ever become a serious thing) but the Leo chassis is starting to show it's limits in term of weight.

I don't know if the maximum load can be increased again, but this would drive the cost up to upgrade a design that start reaching it's limits.

 

Basically if a western country want an up to date ground system it will be either the MGCS (probably: 3 man tank, unmanned turret and 130mm) or what the US and the Israeli are going for (upgraded gen 3 tank in combo with an UGV).

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13 hours ago, Alzoc said:

 

Basically if a western country want an up to date ground system it will be either the MGCS (probably: 3 man tank, unmanned turret and 130mm) or what the US and the Israeli are going for (upgraded gen 3 tank in combo with an UGV).

 

Neither Israel nor the USA are going for an upgraded 3rd gen tank in the long run. Both have programs for incremental upgrades to their tanks (ECP for Abrams, Barak for Merkava), just like KMW is putting out Leopard 2A7 upgrades and may even have a 2A8 in a couple years after enough countries bought the A7.

 

They both have programs for conceptual breakthroughs through current and maturing technologies. The NGCV and Carmel, two very similar programs, will eventually include an MBT project. Neither of them is a standalone vehicle.

Those MBTs should be the direct competitors to the MGCS.

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2 hours ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

They both have programs for conceptual breakthroughs through current and maturing technologies. The NGCV and Carmel, two very similar programs, will eventually include an MBT project. Neither of them is a standalone vehicle.

Those MBTs should be the direct competitors to the MGCS. 

 

True but so far they don't include any development project of an MBT.

My point is that there will probably be (assuming every program stay on schedule) at least 10 year between the time the MGCS enter service and the time when the MBTs of the American and Israeli programs enter service. I mean we haven't heard anything about the MBT part yet, let alone a date.

 

I'm not sure that modernizing the Leopard 2 so that it can last until 2045-2050 is a sound decision (both from a military and economical PoV).

So a lot of European country will need a new MBT around this time and during a short time window (5-10 years) the MGCS will most likely be the only 4th gen western MBT on the market. After that yes, the American and Israeli programs will be direct competitor, but at this point it is likely that a lot of country will have already bought (or developed in some cases) a new MBT.

 

It could lead to a repeat of what happened with the Leo 2: everybody needing a new MBT at the same time, one model keep getting more and more order getting cheaper and cheaper until it completely saturate the market.

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2 hours ago, Alzoc said:

 

True but so far they don't include any development project of an MBT.

My point is that there will probably be (assuming every program stay on schedule) at least 10 year between the time the MGCS enter service and the time when the MBTs of the American and Israeli programs enter service. I mean we haven't heard anything about the MBT part yet, let alone a date.

 

I'm not sure that modernizing the Leopard 2 so that it can last until 2045-2050 is a sound decision (both from a military and economical PoV).

So a lot of European country will need a new MBT around this time and during a short time window (5-10 years) the MGCS will most likely be the only 4th gen western MBT on the market. After that yes, the American and Israeli programs will be direct competitor, but at this point it is likely that a lot of country will have already bought (or developed in some cases) a new MBT.

 

It could lead to a repeat of what happened with the Leo 2: everybody needing a new MBT at the same time, one model keep getting more and more order getting cheaper and cheaper until it completely saturate the market.

 

Deployment of the MGCS is scheduled for 2035.

Deployment of the first vehicles of the Carmel program is scheduled for 2027. That means the core technologies are ready at most in 2024, and development of an MBT can begin just shortly prior to that. MBT development, if fully funded, can take 5 years until deployment.

 

In the US the schedule is similar, and I don't think they'll wait 8 years after deploying an AFV based on the same technologies.

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9 minutes ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

 

Deployment of the MGCS is scheduled for 2035.

Deployment of the first vehicles of the Carmel program is scheduled for 2027. That means the core technologies are ready at most in 2024, and development of an MBT can begin just shortly prior to that. MBT development, if fully funded, can take 5 years until deployment.

 

In the US the schedule is similar, and I don't think they'll wait 8 years after deploying an AFV based on the same technologies.

 

With enough money and the full support of the state it's possible yes.

For Israel I could see that happen since the country is still technically at war.

For the US though the cold war is long finished and the tensions between them and the rest of the world haven't risen that high yet.

They definitively can develop and produce a new MBT in a short time frame, but I don't think that there is the political will to spend the money doing it that fast ATM. American members may think differently though, and I would be glad to have their hindsight on this.

 

But as I said we don't even have a letter of intent for now, so it's only speculation at this point.

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  • 1 month later...

What do we hear about LoI? The German and French authorities should hurry up. Otherwise the political intention will be lost and the companies involved at both sides of the Rhine will run side by side the same way with different products. Would not be the first time: AMX30 vs Leopard 1, Leclerc vs Leopard 2 ... What next? Leclerc Scorpion vs Leopard 2 A8. @Alzoc give me you opinion!

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51 minutes ago, Gun Ready said:

What do we hear about LoI? The German and French authorities should hurry up. Otherwise the political intention will be lost and the companies involved at both sides of the Rhine will run side by side the same way with different products. Would not be the first time: AMX30 vs Leopard 1, Leclerc vs Leopard 2 ... What next? Leclerc Scorpion vs Leopard 2 A8. @Alzoc give me you opinion!

 

Well I'm not too worried about the MGCS, even if there are slight differences in the calendar and the usual problems working with Germany (ie they order a lot then reduce the order driving up the cost and being incredibly inconsistent on their export policy) the thing is that the Leopard 2 is at the end of it's upgrade potential and the Leclerc's production lines are closed. Both countries will need a new MBT so will most European nations operating the Leopard 2 in one form or another.

 

Technically yes the Americans and the Israeli might come up with 4th gen MBT at the same time if the MGCS program runs late, but it is in my opinion unlikely given that neither of them have actually properly started a program yet.

Add on top of that Nexter lost some key competences to design a new MBT (most notably on the heavy duty automotive involved) and the chances to end up with concurrent programs are IMO low.

Sure we'll see some bickering on who does what but those will eventually be sorted out.

Normally we should see the first design study out around mid 2019.

 

I'm more worried about the FCAS since the needs are truly different here.

France is going toward an all Rafale fleet with CATOBAR capability, while most other European nations operate a blend of various planes and have no short term interest in spending money on a naval plane and have already started replacing some of their older planes: It will be hard to agree on requirements (which is the reason why the program try to limit the number of participants as much as possible).

Finally some members of the German parliament are already complaining that France took a share too big on this program (which is hypocrite given that just as we don't have all the know how to design an MBT, they lack the one necessary to build a fighter), so we might see a push for Airbus to take more responsibility on the program and personally I would like to avoid a repeat of the Eurofighter fiasco. The military branch of Airbus have a less than stellar track record on the management of recent programs.

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1 hour ago, Alzoc said:

 

Well I'm not too worried about the MGCS, even if there are slight differences in the calendar and the usual problems working with Germany (ie they order a lot then reduce the order driving up the cost and being incredibly inconsistent on their export policy) the thing is that the Leopard 2 is at the end of it's upgrade potential and the Leclerc's production lines are closed. Both countries will need a new MBT so will most European nations operating the Leopard 2 in one form or another.

 

Technically yes the Americans and the Israeli might come up with 4th gen MBT at the same time if the MGCS program runs late, but it is in my opinion unlikely given that neither of them have actually properly started a program yet.

Add on top of that Nexter lost some key competences to design a new MBT (most notably on the heavy duty automotive involved) and the chances to end up with concurrent programs are IMO low.

Sure we'll see some bickering on who does what but those will eventually be sorted out.

Normally we should see the first design study out around mid 2019.

 

I'm more worried about the FCAS since the needs are truly different here.

France is going toward an all Rafale fleet with CATOBAR capability, while most other European nations operate a blend of various planes and have no short term interest in spending money on a naval plane and have already started replacing some of their older planes: It will be hard to agree on requirements (which is the reason why the program try to limit the number of participants as much as possible).

Finally some members of the German parliament are already complaining that France took a share too big on this program (which is hypocrite given that just as we don't have all the know how to design an MBT, they lack the one necessary to build a fighter), so we might see a push for Airbus to take more responsibility on the program and personally I would like to avoid a repeat of the Eurofighter fiasco. The military branch of Airbus have a less than stellar track record on the management of recent programs.

 

Thanks for your quick assessment! Do you think that the EMBT presented at Eurosatory could be a starting point for MGCS? Nexter and KMW started "to train to work together" whatever this means. And the question will be what impression the procurement agencies (DGA and Beschaffungsamt) will get from the future "work together". The Germans might not be so happy as Rheinmetall will get than a minor role in this game. Let's see how the first design study will look like which you expect to show up mid 2019.

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