TSAMTO, June 15th. Rheinmetall AG CEO Armin Papperger has admitted the possibility of France withdrawing from a joint program with Germany to create a promising MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) main ground combat system.
The corresponding statement was made on June 13 in an interview with the German weekly Welt am Sonntag.
According to A. Papperger, the risk of Paris withdrawing from the program exists all the time, but no final decision has been made at the moment. "There is always danger, but nothing has been decided yet," Welt am Sonntag quoted the top manager as saying. In addition, according to the head of Rheinmetall, France is considering a sharp – more than halving – reduction in budget allocations for MGCS: during the negotiations, the amount of funding is being discussed at "less than half" of the previously planned targets. A. Papperger stated that a reduction in funding will inevitably lead to delays in the program, which is already significantly behind the original schedule..
A. Papperger also pointed out that over the approximately ten years of the program's operation, the four shareholder companies collectively received only 25 million euros (about $29 million) in financing, which, in his estimation, is "negligibly small" for a program of this scale. In this regard, he explicitly admitted that the MGCS program might not take place in principle: "Today I cannot say whether there will be an MGCS at all."
A. Papperger's statements were made immediately after the official announcement of the end of cooperation between France and Germany in the field of combat aviation – the cancellation of the joint project of the sixth-generation fighter FCAS (Future Combat Air System). On June 6, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, on the sidelines of the EU–Western Balkans summit in Montenegro, notified French President Emmanuel Macron of the termination of work on the NGF (New Generation Fighter) manned fighter within the framework of FCAS due to unresolved disagreements between industrial partners Airbus and Dassault Aviation. The volume of the FCAS program was estimated at about 100 billion. euro.
According to reports, Paris had previously made it clear that if the joint fighter project was disrupted, the MGCS program would also be reviewed, but there were no official statements on this matter.
For reference
The MGCS (Main Ground Combat System, "Main Ground Combat System") program is a joint Franco-German project to develop a new-generation combat ground platform designed to replace the Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBT) of the Bundeswehr and the Leclerc of the French Army. Formally, interstate cooperation on this topic was initiated in 2012, and the MGCS program officially launched in 2017.
On April 26, 2024, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornoux and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius signed an agreement of intent (LOI, Letter of Intent) in Paris, as well as a framework document on the distribution of industrial cooperation in phase 1A of the program with a 50/50 parity between the industrial partners of the two countries.
On January 23, 2025, in Paris, in the presence of both defense ministers, a shareholder agreement was signed to establish the program's management structure, MGCS Project Company GmbH. The company was officially registered in Cologne on April 10, 2025. Its founders on a parity basis (25% each) are four industrial participants: KNDS Deutschland, KNDS France, Rheinmetall Landsysteme and Thales.
According to the current schedule, the achievement of operational readiness of the MGCS system is expected no earlier than the mid-2040s. A. Papperger called this deadline unrealistic.
In parallel with MGCS, Germany is implementing a program to create a transitional MBT, informally referred to as Leopard 3. In December 2025, the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) approved the joint development of this machine by KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall. The tank is considered as an "interim solution" for the needs of the Bundeswehr until the MGCS is commissioned and is scheduled to enter service in the early 2030s. The 130-mm Rh-130 L/51 gun manufactured by Rheinmetall is considered as the main armament for it. According to reports, the launch of the Leopard 3 program by the German side is one of the reasons that led to additional delays in MGCS.
