By Rudy Ruitenberg

Friday, Sep 22

作者：鲁迪鲁坦伯格

2023年9月22日，星期五

 

French army soldiers drive Leclerc tanks during the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2023. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)

2023年7月14日，在巴黎香榭丽舍大街举行的巴士底日阅兵式上，法国陆军士兵驾驶勒克莱尔坦克。（卢多维奇·马林/法新社通过盖蒂图片社拍摄）

 

PARIS — The defense ministers of France and Germany expect to begin negotiations for their next-generation tank project with industry leaders KNDS and Rheinmetall in 2024, after which other European countries could join the initiative.

巴黎——法国和德国国防部长预计将于2024年开始与行业领袖KNDS防务集团和莱茵金属公司就其下一代坦克项目进行谈判，之后其他欧洲国家可能会加入该倡议。

 

Italy, the Netherlands and “many others” expressed an interest in joining the project to develop the Main Ground Combat System, or MGCS, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at a press conference at Evreux airbase west of Paris on Thursday.

德国国防部长鲍里斯·皮斯托利斯周四在巴黎以西的埃夫勒空军基地举行的新闻发布会上表示，意大利、荷兰和“许多其他国家”表示有兴趣加入该项目，以开发主要地面作战系统（MGCS）。

 

There is the possibility of nations joining as “observers” as a first step, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said. German and French top military leaders are in discussion with the Italian armed forces, who have their own future armored cavalry requirements, the minister said.

法国武装部队部长塞巴斯蒂安·莱科尔努表示，各国有可能作为“观察员”加入，这是第一步。这位部长说，德国和法国最高军事领导人正在与意大利武装部队进行讨论，意大利武装部队有自己未来的装甲骑兵需求。

 

Berlin and Paris will spend the rest of the year hammering out of project specifications, after the two countries’ army chiefs reported on the operational requirements for the replacement of Germany’s Leopard 2 and France’s Leclerc main battle tanks. That will put both governments in a position to uphold their military objectives, as MGCS contractors are expected to push their own ideas for the next-generation tank once negotiations begin, Pistorius said.

柏林和巴黎将在今年剩下的时间里敲定项目规范，此前两国陆军参谋长报告了更换德国豹2型和法国勒克莱尔主战坦克的作战要求。皮斯托利斯表示，这将使两国政府都能够坚持其军事目标，因为一旦谈判开始，MGCS承包商预计将推动他们自己的下一代坦克想法。

 

The agreement on operational requirements “shows to what point, basically, it won’t be a new Leopard and it won’t be a new Leclerc,” Lecornu said. “The technological breakthroughs are going to be brutal.”

关于操作要求的协议“说明了在什么方面，基本上，它不会是新的豹式，也不会是新的勒克莱尔，”勒科尔努说。“技术突破将是直言不讳的。”

 

The future tank is expected to come into service on the 2040-2045 horizon, according to Lecornu. The French minister said he hopes the first contracts will be signed in 2024.

据勒科尔努说，未来的坦克预计将在2040-2045年期间服役。法国部长表示，他希望第一批合同将在2024年签署。

 

Other interested EU countries will only be invited to join the project once France and Germany have defined the specs of the future tank, according to Lecornu.

勒科尔努表示，只有一旦法国和德国确定了未来坦克的规格，其他感兴趣的欧盟国家才会被邀请加入该项目。

 

The future tank will be modular, including platforms that can be either manned or automated, according to Lecornu. It will have a classic fire capability – “it goes without saying that the function of classic fire will not have disappeared” – but also electromagnetic weapons, electronic warfare functionality and laser weapons, the minister said.

勒科尔努表示，未来的坦克将是模块化的，包括可以载人或自动化的平台。部长表示，它将具有经典的火力能力——“不用说，经典火力的功能不会消失”——还将具有电磁武器、电子战功能和激光武器。

 

The MGCS will require a reactive defense with a hard-kill capacity, drones to protect the tank, artificial intelligence functionality to coordinate fire in a connected environment, and the technological leap in terms of cybersecurity will be “absolutely colossal,” Lecornu said.

勒科尔努表示，MGCS将需要具有硬杀伤能力的反应式防御、保护坦克的无人机、在互联环境中协调火力的人工智能功能，网络安全方面的技术飞跃将“绝对巨大”。

 

France and Germany will discuss in the coming days how to divide the work on the project into several “pillars,” Pistorius said. The countries are taking inspiration from their joint Future Combat Air System project, which has defined pillars including the combat aircraft, engine, drones and combat cloud architecture, each assigned to a different group of contractors with a national lead.

皮斯托利斯说，法国和德国将在未来几天讨论如何将该项目的工作划分为几个“核心”。这些国家的灵感来自他们的联合未来作战航空系统项目，该项目定义了包括作战飞机、发动机、无人机和作战云架构在内的核心，每个核心都分配给了一组由国家领导的不同承包商。

 

The war in Ukraine has shown the costs of tank maintenance in a high-intensity conflict, and keeping operational support costs under control will be a “major element” in the choices for the future tank, according to Lecornu.

勒科尔努表示，乌克兰战争显示了在高强度冲突中对坦克的维护成本，而控制作战支持成本将是未来坦克选择的一个“主要因素”。

 

Pistorius said the MGCS is “a lot more advanced” than a separate project by German, Spanish and Italian defense companies for a modern battle tank, and the two governments don’t expect the industrial project, which responds to a European Union-defined capability gap, to compete with their plans.

皮斯托利斯表示，MGCS比德国、西班牙和意大利国防公司的一个现代作战坦克单独项目“先进得多”，两国政府预计该工业项目不会与他们的计划竞争，因为该项目是对欧盟定义的能力差距的回应。

 

France has included €500 million ($533 million) in its 2024-2030 military budget for the MGCS project, which doesn’t include the costs for a mid-life overhaul of the country’s Leclerc tanks, according to Lecornu.

勒科尔努表示，法国已将5亿欧元（5.33亿美元）纳入其2024-2030年MGCS项目的军事预算，其中不包括该国勒克莱尔坦克的中期大修费用。