PARIS — The French Army showed off an upgraded Leclerc XLR main battle tank fitted with roof-mounted cage armor, a protective measure widely mocked on social media as “cope cages” when similar structures appeared on Russian tanks during the opening months of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but which has since proven useful against drones on the modern battlefield.
The French Army technical section built a prototype of the metal cage, which is now being manufactured by KNDS France and in the process of being delivered to the tank units, said Gen. Olivier Coquet, head of the section known as STAT, in a briefing with reporters at the Eurosatory defense show near Paris on Sunday.
Roof-mounted armor variants have been adopted by both Russian and Ukrainian forces as drone threats proliferate.
The Leclerc is being upgraded as part of France’s Scorpion armored-vehicle modernization program, which includes equipping the French armor’s heaviest armored unit with new computers, additional armor and a remotely operated turret to operate in urban areas, according to Coquet. The Leclerc has a 120 mm cannon and an autoloader, with a crew of three.
France’s main battle tank will be reaching the end of its service life by 2035, and the Army plans to acquire an interim capability to bridge the gap between the end of the Leclerc and the arrival of the Main Ground Combat System, Coquet said. The joint MGCS project is more likely to arrive towards 2045, according to the head of the STAT.
“We already have some ideas, we know full well that it won’t be an exact copy of the Leclerc tank. There will be drones operating alongside it, and we know there will be a robotic element,” said Gen. Philippe de Montenon, the commander of the French land forces and operations, in the same briefing.
The planned MGCS will “clearly” not be just a tank but a networked system of systems with artificial intelligence, and the interim capability will be a “first building block of the MGCS,” according to Coquet. “So that’s what we’re looking for.”
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.