Posted on 06/17/2018 12:51:05 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
French and German industry have unexpectedly unveiled a new Euro Main Battle Tank (EMBT) concept at Eurosatory, their first attempt at combining national technologies to develop a next-generation pan-European tank.
The EMBT has been developed by KNDS – a joint company between German Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and French company Nexter – and combines a Leopard 2 chassis with a Leclerc 120mm turret.
Officials from KNDS told Shephard that the development effort has been ongoing since January 2017, with the prototype platform conducting live fire trials only a month ago.
‘This is the first step in having a common product from Nexter and KMW,’ said Rudolf Neuhaus, project manager for EMBT for KMW. ‘This is a demonstrator but the next step will be to have a prototype or pre-series production.’
A joint Nexter-KMW team has now been established that will go into more detailed analysis of integrating French-German technologies.
‘It is a way of showing that we are now working together,’ said Francois Groshany, Nexter’s head of tracked armoured programmes.
He added that because the Leclerc features a lighter autoloading turret, compared with the manually loaded Leopard 2, the EMBT is lighter and has a growth potential of around 6t (10% of the EMBT's 60t GVW).
This effort has been funded by KNDS and is not a German or French government programme. Work done on the demonstrator is expected to inform technology and cooperation requirements for a future MBT that will enter service in the 2030s.
The German and French governments are currently studying a new joint MBT under a programme known as the Mobile Ground Combat System (MGCS).
‘We can develop and qualify this in the time between MGCS,’ said Groshany, who called the EMBT an ‘opportunity product’ to gauge operational interest as well as strategic interest in a pan-European project.
For the EMBT, one of the main challenges has been to integrate the electronic and mechanical interfaces between the turret and chassis. ‘It was not easy…there was a lot of engineering effort on the chassis side,’ said Neuhaus, speaking to Shephard at Eurosatory.
The chassis is based on the latest A7 variant of the Leopard 2, with mobility trials also complete with the Leclerc turret integrated.
He added that this was, for the time being, the limit as to how much technology can be shared between the two countries, owing to German legislation. ‘This is the limit that we can go …due to German law we cannot exchange technologies.’
KMW and Nexter merged to form a joint company in 2015.
A century ago, the two countries were sworn enemies.
Now they’re producing tanks together. Look what can change in a century.
Before that, England and France were sworn enemies.
Automatic Pop-up white flag is optional on the French version...
Combining superb German technology in the tank with fine French cuisine at the mess hall.
How many gears are on an Italian tank?
Six. One forward and five in reverse.
The important question is, how many islamic migrants can she hold?
European Heaven: The French are the chefs, the Italians are the waiters, the Germans run the trains and the British are the police.
European Hell: The British are the chefs, the French are the waiters, the Italians run the trains and the Germans are the police.
If it’s a lopsided battle and your side has complete control of the air, an air-conditioned tank might not be so bad.
If it’s a closely-matched battle and your side does not have undisputed air superiority, that tank, any tank, is a coffin. We and our adversaries have many effective ways to kill tanks and/or their crews. True, tanks are getting better protection from RPGs and so forth, but no close-in defense is going to stop DU or tungsten 20 mm rounds from shredding tanks and their tracks. AFAIK no short range defense has even been tried against top-attack seeker weapons such as Javelin or Maverick.
I think we need to let the Abrams be our last manned battle tank, and from now on concentrate on getting equivalent or better capability and firepower from swarms of remote-controlled smaller tanks with minimal armor for protection from small arms.
Swarm technology is rapidly advancing. Soon if not now you will able to remotely direct one lead tank platform in a battle and have a swarm of identical tanks follow your lead while using semi-autonomy to navigate terrain and gain advantageous angles on the objective. If your tank gets disabled you will instantly switch and make another one into the lead tank. The enemy will attack individual tanks but they will have to kill virtually all of them to defeat the swarm.
The happiest man in the world drinks German beer, eats Italian food, has a Japanese wife, and lives in America.
Will swarm technology dominate in the air and on the sea?
Abrams is aging. I wonder how this would compare? I should look into its stats...
I believe the Abrahms is still a top tier tank.
I believe the Abrahms is still a top tier tank.
Indeed, swarms with a human “leader” and semi-autonomous functionality seem to be the way to go. The reason for having a human at least near them, and for having semi-autonomy, is of course jamming (something our adversaries are getting very good at). You can’t just have it so that if a drone (whether aerial or ground based) loses its signal it’s taken out of the battlefield. Having a human nearby means that it can close ranks until signal gain is sufficient to restore communications. Having semi-autonomy means that if its signal is lost, it can attempt to continue its last assigned mission on its own to the best of its ability (e.g. including recognition, classification, and neutralization of targets discovered after communication was lost), up until communications are reestablished. If jamming can’t stop a mission from being completed, its utility is greatly reduced.
In the air, for example, I expect to see the F-35 slowly morph into an aerial command center for drone wingmen, the latter of which take a more front-and-center role in the operation, while the latter takes the rear and focuses primarily on operations management.
For the drones, take the human (and all of their associated weight) out of the equation. Eliminate the need for a high level of redundancy and general safety, and give the airframe maneuvering ability beyond what humans can withstand. Make them cheap, capable, and in large numbers.
You know, you can sort of envision the progressive distancing of “humans” and “value” from the battlefield. A carrier keeps its distance with aircraft. A manned aircraft keeps its distance with drone wingmen. A drone keeps its distance with standoff weaponry. A standoff weapon might in turn deploy numerous individually-homing warheads with increasingly sophisticated target identification and tracking capabilities, effectively MIRVing the final approach. Etc.
AMAP ADS is reportedly *specifically* capable against many top attack munitions like Javelin. Arena and Trophy can kill Maverick at many attack angles and reportedly so can Afghanit. They may also be able to take down Javelin depending on how far away the Javelin was launched (see below pictures.)
FYI, this is Javelin's top down attack profile - Maverick's is similar. It's not actually fully perpendicular 'top down.'
For reference, here's Javelin's direct attack profile.
Our current Abrams is air conditioned as well - not because of crew comfort but for NBC reasons and to cool the huge array of computers and electronics in it.
Additionally, there are versions of Arena and other APS that *can* knock down 20mm cannon fire. Yes, even tungsten AP rounds.
Right up until the point the operating system crashes, someone pops a cold or hot EMP, or manages to jam the control frequencies. Swarm based AI is still a considerable way off and EMP shielding is still big and heavy.
Is it designed for conditions in the PIIGS?
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