LECLERC TANK, FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE CONFLICTS OF TOMORROW

Designed to destroy Soviet tank hordes on the plains of Germany, the Leclerc set the performance bar so high that, forty years after its conception, engineers the world over still dream of matching it when designing a new tank.

Hitting seven moving targets at up to 3,000 m while travelling cross-country at 50 km/h in one minute is a feat achievable only with exceptional technology. Thanks to the modularity of its design, the Leclerc is already equipped to fight alongside robots, drones and digitalised infantry, all interconnected via a tactical intranet.

The use of previously confidential archives and the recollections of those involved in the programme allowed the author — himself deeply involved in the project for over twelve years — to write this definitive reference work tracing the history of the tank's development, the behind-the-scenes story of Franco-German cooperation, and a study of all variants including those that have remained, to this day, within the secrecy of the design offices. As the future generation of ground-superiority armoured vehicles is being prepared, this work offers a fresh look at the most formidable modern main battle tank ever built.

The Author: A trained military engineer, Marc Chassillan is a professor at ENSTA and taught at EMSST in Paris and at the École des Blindés in Abu Dhabi. He has published numerous books, opinion pieces and articles on weapons systems and contributes to many specialist publications. He is a radio and television consultant and takes part in numerous TV documentaries on the history of armaments. He was a board member of the Musée des Blindés in Saumur and a member of the scientific council of the defence economics chair at IHEDN. He holds the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre National du Mérite.