European defense cooperation has hit another major obstacle. After the failure of the German-French FCAS fighter jet program, the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) – a joint project to develop a next-generation tank – appears to be in serious trouble. A recent document from the 26th session of the Franco-German Defense and Security Council makes no mention of the common tank, signaling a dramatic shift in plans.
The MGCS program was intended to replace Germany’s Leopard 2 and France’s Leclerc tanks by 2035. Launched in 2017, five years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the project was meant to be a flagship of European defense industrial cooperation. In April 2024, Germany and France signed a formal agreement to move forward, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius calling it „more than a breakthrough, it is a historical moment.” Yet just over two years later, the project is effectively on ice.
Rivalry and diverging interests
According to the Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, which cited the final document from the July 2026 meeting, the two countries merely agreed to „study a systemic approach as an integral part of future multi-domain operations.” There was no concrete commitment to a common tank platform. The document’s language suggests that Paris and Berlin have quietly abandoned the original MGCS timeline, if not the entire concept. Industry sources point to long-standing tensions between the national defense industries – Germany’s KNDS (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter) and France’s Thales – over technology sharing, production shares, and export rights. These differences, already present since the program’s inception, have now become insurmountable.
A pattern of European defense failures
The MGCS setback is not an isolated incident. In June 2026, it was reported that the German-French FCAS (Future Combat Air System) fighter project had also collapsed. Both Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron reportedly concluded that Dassault and Airbus were unable to agree on a common combat aircraft design. The FCAS program, with an estimated cost of over €100 billion, was supposed to replace Eurofighter and Rafale jets from 2040. The parallel failures of these two cornerstone programs raise serious questions about the viability of joint European defense projects in an era of heightened threats. While both nations continue to invest heavily in their own national platforms – Germany in the Leopard 2A8 upgrade and France in the Leclerc evolution – the dream of a common European main battle tank now seems farther away than ever.
Źródło: wnp.pl, Fot. Shutterstock
