MGCS — which involves KNDS France, KNDS Germany, Rheinmetall and Thales — has been bogged down by years of delays, industrial disputes and political tensions. POLITICO reported in June that the next-generation tank project was increasingly doomed.
Mandon’s admission comes only a few months after another high-stakes Franco-German defense industrial program — the Future Combat Air System — abruptly ended.
However, answering a question from a far-right National Rally lawmaker, the French general pushed back against the word “failure” to describe the MGCS’s fate.
“It’s not a complete failure; it’s an important decision by Germany, but our land forces have worked together for several years to determine what a future main battle tank should look like,” he said. “It wasn’t a waste of time. But from an industrial standpoint, this isn’t good news.”
A German defense official had no comment.
Rixa Fürsen contributed to this report.