Nexter developed the Terminateur, a demonstrator based on the Leclerc chassis fitted with a 140 mm gun. © M. Chassillan.
MGCS, ménage à trois or more ? By Marc Chassillan
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n 2017, under the impetus of the new French President Emmanuel Macron, France offered Germany six armament projects to be carried out in cooperation: the Maritime Airborne Weapons System, the New Generation Fighter, the Common Indirect Fire System, the Remotely Piloted Airborne System (RPAS) drone, the modernization of the Tiger Mk3 helicopter and the future Main Ground Combat System (MGCS). After five years of difficult budgetary, industrial, and technical negotiations, the RPAS is the only project to be on track. All the others are either stillborn or in very great difficulty. Launched in 2017, the MGCS was first subject of conceptual studies directly driven on the German side by the IABG (Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH) and on the French side by the Saint-Louis Insti-
tute. The outcomes made it possible to launch the phase known as SADS-1 (System Architecture Definition Study - Part 1) entrusted to the Nexter-KMW-Rheinmetall trio and that was completed at the end of 2021. In parallel, a letter of intent was signed in June 2018 between the two Defence Ministers, followed on April 20, 2020, by an “Implementing Arrangement 1”, formalizing the launch by France and Germany of the bilateral programme and providing for the organization of the project and the management structure. The German Ministry of Defence announced that it was managing the bilateral MGCS programme, financed equally by both states via the BAAINBw (Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr) the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information TechEDR | May/June 2022
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