From Kursk in Russia, to El-Alamein in Egypt, and the Ardennes, we thought the great tank battles were consigned to the dustbin of history. And now, with the Russian-Ukrainian war, tanks are back in the limelight, even if their deployment is not on the scale of the Second World War, and other equipment (artillery, missiles, drones, etc.) plays a crucial role. Since 2022, in this new military context, competition has been developing between German, American and South Korean manufacturers to equip the armies of the Old Continent, at a time when Russian industry is gaining power.

Italy has just sprung a surprise. On July 3, its aerospace and defense company Leonardo announced a partnership with the German Rheinmetall Group to supply a “new combat tank” Panther KF51 to the Italian army. The agreement provides for the creation of a 50-50 joint venture in Italy, which will also produce the new “Italianized” Lynx armored vehicle for the Esercito Italiano. Beyond that, “the agreement will open up new global markets for us, in which we would not have been able to compete as stand-alone companies,” said Roberto Cingolani, Leonardo director general, in an interview with the Financial Times on July 7.

This partnership marks the end of the “strategic alliance” that Leonardo was planning at the end of 2023 with Franco-German KNDS to form “a truly European group” and “cooperate more closely in the field of land defense electronics.” At the time, Rome wanted to buy 133 Leopard 2A8 tanks, the latest-generation armored vehicle from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, the German branch of KNDS; and, above all, to integrate into the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), as Paris wanted to invite Rome to rebalance its relations with Berlin in this Franco-German program.

Ambitious program

However, the alliance offered no clear long-term strategic perspective for Leonardo, whose technological contribution would have been “minimal” and limited to a few components on KNDS’s already existing tanks, Cingolani explained to justify his withdrawal. Conversely, 60% of the production (electronics, turrets, etc.), certification testing and logistics of the Italian-German joint venture will be carried out in the Peninsula, an illustration of Italian Council President Giorgia Meloni’s desire to strengthen her country in Europe, while modernizing its armed forces.

The agreement marks a milestone in the consolidation of Europe’s fragmented defense industrial and technological base. It also poses a threat to the MGCS, the ambitious European program designed to replace France’s Leclerc and Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks by 2040. “Where will the MGCS fit in, when the German and Italian armies will, by then, be massively equipped with Leopard 2A8s and the new KF51 heavy tank, and when a tank has a lifespan of forty years?” asked Marc Chassillan, armament engineer and international consultant.

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