The recent announcement of the formation of the MARTE, a joint venture headed by Germany’s Rheinmetall Landsysteme and KNDS Deutschland, raises a significant number of questions on future Main Battle Tank (MBT) development in Europe.
Both of these German contractors are already engaged in the larger and more complex MGCS, a Franco-German project to develop a new MBT to replace the currently deployed French Leclerc and the German Leopard 2 MBTs. It also includes other armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), tracked and wheeled.
It is not the first effort by the two countries to jointly create a tank. KNDS presented