The Second World War It was a severe setback for the French tank industry. The Char B1 and the Somua S-35Despite being heavier and better armed than their German counterparts, they were crushed by the might of General Heinz Guderian’s ‘Blitzkrieg’. Since then, the French have had a certain scourge when it comes to tank design, one that hasn’t taken away even their revolutionary post-war designs. Mythical stuff. For this reason, when the news broke in the media that, in all likelihood, the battleships Leclerc they would not be sent to Ukraine, the buzz returned: lack of quality and power shortage?, perhaps a certain gap?
Not one thing, not the other. The Leclerc, although with its shortcomings, is among the most cutting-edge tanks in Europe and the world. In fact, the latest news in this regard is that France is considering dispatching several units to Ukraine. And if it does not, it is due to the reluctance of the French government; the same ones that the United States and Germany had at first with their Abrams M1 and their Leopard 2, respectively. On January 22, the president Emmanuel Macron He confirmed that the possibility was real, but that his goal was to prevent a dangerous escalation of violence: “Our task is to ensure that the next generations of Europeans can live on a continent at peace.”
the gazelle is born
Let’s go step by step. The French ‘Armée de Terre’ defines the Leclerc as “the first third-generation battle tank”; a vehicle that, more than a battleship to use, is “an innovative weapons system” with the ability to be updated as the years go by. In turn, he argues that “it is the coercion tool of the French Army” against international threats. But the road to its design was tortuous. It started in the 1960s, when France realized that the new eastern prototypes were far ahead of their already ancient AMX-30; a vehicle too light and weakly armed for the new era of armored warfare that was looming.
The enemy to be beaten by Western Europe was the Russian T-64; today, still active and present in the war in Ukraine. In practice, this armored vehicle was the one that started the era of second-generation battle tanks in the old Soviet Union. It had an automatic loader that allowed the crew to be reduced from four to three soldiers and was equipped with revolutionary composite armor and NBC protection and fire control systems. “The production of the T-64 as a 115-millimeter weapon began in 1964,” explains Óscar Corcoba Fernández in ‘Military Technology’. The expert points out that, among its advantages, was its smaller size, which reduced its silhouette and its ability to be hit by the enemy.
To end its supremacy, France proposed a new design under a series of maxims. According to Mariette Ruiz de Erenchun and Fernando Albarracín in their essay on this armored vehicle, the prototype had to have automatic target acquisition systems and have the ability to fire effectively while moving. From the beginning it was proposed that the vehicle would revolve around two essential characteristics: speed and mobility. Those from which the French tanks suffered in World War II and led them to be defeated by the Germans. Finally, and as happened to the Israelis when they raised their Merkava, the tank had to be able to face much larger enemy divisions and emerge victorious. Almost nothing.
Leclerc inglés
It cannot be denied that France tried to take advantage of already existing designs. The ‘Armée de Terre’ tested the Merkava, the Abrams and the Leopard, but concluded that none of them convinced them. In the end, he opted for a national combat tank designed by the company GIAT –’Groupement des Industries de l’Armée de Terre’–, today renamed NEXTER. The first tank was presented in 1990 and just a year later it entered service. The name given to him couldn’t be more French: Leclerc. That of the general who, on August 24, 1944, was the first to enter Paris together with his 2nd Armored Division of Free France.
fast and lethal
Although the Leclerc is not as mobile as its predecessors, it is still based on this maxim. NEXT he prides himself on this and, in his reports on the tank, claims it has a speed of up to 45 mph on the highway and 35 mph off-road, as well as an “unmatched tonnage to power ratio.” And it weighs, in total, a scant 50 tons. In return, the North American Abrams is around 60 tons and reaches 68 km/h on the track and 48 km/h on other types of terrain. The Leopard 2, finally, also weighs 60 tons and does not exceed 70 km/h on the highway.
In exchange, the Leclerc mounts a NEXTER CN120-26 (F1) 120mm smoothbore gun. and 52 gauges in length. At the time it was one of the best on the planet, although today it is surpassed by the 55-calibre developed by Rheinmetall. But his victory does not lie on that point, but rather on the fact that, as the French land army explains in its dossiers on this armored vehicle, “it is the only one in the world capable of firing on the move at a fixed target located more than 4,000 meters away.” distance”. That easily outperforms his competitors. In addition, its ammunition can be replaced by that of the Abrams and Leopards and an update is expected to arrive shortly that will give its main weapon even more power.
A French Leclerc tank and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) take part in joint military exercises between UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army in Naqura, near the Lebanese-Israeli border
As with the rest of the battle tanks, it is difficult to track the thickness of its armor; and it is that companies like Rheinmetall or NEXTER itself are very jealous in this regard. Pundits are adamant that it doesn’t measure up to the Abrams and Leopards in this regard. However, it cannot be denied that he was a pioneer in exclusively mounting modular armor; pieces of armor that are installed on the chassis and that can be replaced by the crew after they have been damaged. He was also the first to incorporate active countermeasures through the GIAT Galix system; in practice, fourteen tubes responsible for launching from decoys to smoke bombs.
On a less technical level, the Leclerc also has a much more compact and reduced design than its competitors. Which, in practice, means that it is more difficult to impact him. All this is completed with an automatic fire suppression and extinction system and an immense list of devices similar to those of the Abrams and Leopard. Finally, NEXTER defends that his is a battle tank digitized to the extreme. The figures support them: a total of fifteen computers make up all the armored systems, offer various data to the tankers and make it possible to coordinate attacks. Its last advantage is the great capacity it has to be improved, since it was designed as a kind of platform capable of changing armor and weapons.
The historical analyst and researcher Jose Luis Hernandez Garvi summarizes for ABC the benefits and history of this tank: «The Leclerc shares a curious characteristic with Russian tanks: it has external fuel tanks that can be attached to give it more autonomy. In addition, he is heir to the German military tradition. After World War II, the Gauls captured several Panzer V –Pantera– and built their industry on this technology”. However, the expert adds that one of its problems is that, although it has been exported to the United Arab Emirates, it has not entered combat. “In this sense, it is far behind the M1 Abrams, which have participated in the most prominent conflicts in the United States, and the Leopard,” he says.
russian bear
In return, the types of tanks that Russia equips its armored divisions number in the dozens. Among the most common is the T-72. With similar dimensions to its predecessor, it was designed in the 1970s and stood out for being compact –an increasingly marked trend at the time–, having a 125-mm smoothbore cannon –later adapted to fire rockets– and because it could ride a composite or reactive armor. The latter houses a small layer of explosives between the metal plates. When hit, they explode outwards, neutralizing some of the force of the projectile.
On paper, this system drastically reduces the effectiveness of one-person anti-tank weapons such as the famous RPG or the most modern American Javelin – more than famous during the first part of the Ukrainian war. Although the truth is that its origins can be found in the long-standing war in Afghanistan.
He T-80 It was the next natural evolution. And that, despite the fact that it generated controversy among the high officials of the Kremlin. The initial idea was to solve the maintenance problems that had surfaced in the T-72; in addition to granting more speed to the combat tanks. The result was a tank with a turbine engine that allowed it to reach about 70 kilometers per hour. Experts confirm that it was a fairly light vehicle and could heat up at lightning speeds, even in winter. The cannon, yes, was similar to that of its predecessor. His debut in combat in the First Chechen War was poor, almost laughable. Although they are performing well in Ukraine in the face of a dearth of more modern versions.
The last stop on this trip is the T-90, an improved development of the T-72 and its thousand versions. It was designed in 1993 and, still today, it is considered one of the ten best tanks in the world. It features composite armor complemented by reactive armor blocks. The first mounted a cast turret, although now they are welded. Its biggest advantage, however, was (and is) the Shtora-1 system; it emits infrared signals that block the guidance of enemy anti-tank missiles and has receivers that launch smoke grenades when the armor is locked on by a laser. Its primary weapon is a fully stabilized 125mm 2A46M smoothbore gun. Dignified, efficient and proven in a thousand fights.