The British Ministry of Defence has opened discussions with France and Germany about signing up as an observer on their next-generation Main Ground Combat System program, according to government and industry officials in the U.K. and Germany.
Details of exactly what access the British will get to the program remain unclear, as a possible pact wouldn’t be signed until later this year. “Observer status is being granted to the U.K. for the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System program,” an MoD official in London said.
An industry team involving Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, Nexter and Rheinmetall are in the early conceptual stages of pulling together a vehicle design to replace Germany’s Leopard 2 and France’s Leclerc around 2035.
For the British, the link is expected to help inform future capability requirements developed by the government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and others as part of the MoD’s Future Ground Combat System program.
That program is considering a series of options to replace the current capabilities in the mounted, close-combat arena from 2040 onward.
The Franco-German tank is not the only program being eyed by the British MoD, which continues to monitor a number of global programs and developers, British officials said.