When he arrived at the Elysee Palace after his victory in the 2017 presidential elections, French President Emmanuel Macron quickly undertook to launch a series of major defense programs with Berlin, aimed both at bringing close the two countries' positions in terms of the Defense policy than to take advantage of the possible synergies between the two industrial and technological defense bases. Four main programs emerged, the FCAS in the field of combat aircraft, the CIFS in the field of artillery, the MAWS in the field of maritime patrol aircraft, and the Main Ground Combat System program, or MGCS, in the field of battle tanks.
Heir to Franco-German program European Main Battle Tank or E-MBT, launched in 2012 and aimed for presenting a possible replacement to Leopard 2 Germans and French Leclerc, MGCS plans to design a replacement for these same two tanks, but this time equipped with the latest technological and doctrinal advances to make it, when it enters service in 2035, the best high-intensity land combat system available. The program was initially co-developed in equal parts between French Nexter and German Krauss-Maffei Wegman, the two companies having merged into a KNDS joint venture in 2015. Following the launch of the MGCS program, a second German player, Rheinmetall, is integrated while preserving the 50% -50% distribution between France and Germany.
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