The production line of Leclerc tanks was shut down by Nexter in 2007 due to a lack of new orders (only France and the United Arab Emirates have purchased them, 406 units for the former, 388 for the latter), which is why the French government opted to modernize existing units, pending the hypothetical development of a new model that is not expected before the mid-2030s at best.

It is no longer possible for a modern army to do without such equipment as the Netherlands did in the early 2010s. 'It's the only machine that combines firepower, mobility and protection,' said Marc Chassillan, a former armament engineer and land equipment expert. 'Each unit will require six months' work.'Ĭonsidered one of the world's most advanced heavy armored vehicles when it entered service in 1993, the Leclerc is not getting any younger and needed to be modernized to remain competitive on the battlefield: After being neglected when the Cold War ended, the battle tank became indispensable once again with the war in Ukraine. 'All the components will be removed and then reassembled with new, more modern equipment,' explained Thomas N., the workshop manager (the names of the employees are not provided for security reasons). 30 operators worked around these carcasses. Lined up side by side, it was as if the 60-tonne monsters had been cut up, their turrets removed from the chassis, their treads unrolled on the ground. In the huge hangar, half a dozen Leclerc tanks were laid out like gutted beetles. Subscribers only A Leclerc XLR tank manufactured by the KNDS consortium, which includes and KMV and Nexter, on June 13, 2018.

But some experts believe the planned 'retrofit' is insufficient in view of the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.īy Cédric Pietralunga Published on July 7, 2023, at 3:51 am (Paris), updated on July 7, 2023, at 8:36 am 200 units will need to be modernized between now and 2029.

The army daily dozen exercises