Why France's Tank is the World's Most Expensive
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2023
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What’s the truth about the world’s most expensive main battle tank, France’s Leclerc? For starters the only way it was able to be produced in the first place was thanks to an international web of bribery and intrigue. Which ultimately led to the Leclerc ending up in combat in Yemen against Houthi rebels. But we’ll get into that can of worms later. The Leclerc's new XLR upgrade program will be a part of the massive 400 billion dollar defense modernization budget that will transform France’s army by the year 2030. Wow Leclerc, you’ve really changed and matured over the summer.
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The story of this vehicle's development encapsulates the entire French defense industry philosophy. And keep in mind this analysis will be more accurate than usual thanks to the Leclerc having its classified manual leaked on the Warthunder by a crew member. He did this because the turret rotation speed in game wasn’t accurate enough. Fair enough that would bother me enough to risk going to prison too. Fire off a french tank round at the like and subscribe button and lets get started.
Written by: Chris Cappy and David Caplan
Edited by: Maksym
The origins of the Leclerc can be traced back to 1789 with the invention of the guillotine wait no wrong French weapon. The tank traces its roots to the 1970’s when France decided to replace their old AMX-30 which was seen as inferior to the soviet’s brand new T-72 tank. In the 1986 France’s Directorate of Land Armaments ordered work on the Leclerc tank project immediately. The DGA is the French Government Defense procurement and technology agency responsible for the program management, development and purchase of weapon systems for the French military.
French Generals envisioned the leclerc as an upgrade to the existing AMX-30 tank philosophy which prioritized speed instead of armor weighing only 40 tons. It had only 80 mm of armor opposed to the contemporary American M47 Patton that had 243mm of armor. The French reasoning was that anti-tank weapons technology was advancing at such a fast rate that slower heavily armored tanks would be more vulnerable than lighter and faster ones.
Fast forward to today and modern warfare may be proving this theory correct. The way military design works in France is interesting because the Directorate of Land Armaments also supervises engineering schools that operate under the scrutiny of the Ministry of Defense. (Editor note: École polytechnique , ENSTA) So this means The high-level military staff of the DGA are themselves Armament Engineers.
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#TECHNOLOGY #TANK #WAR
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hi
TOW GOAT Gun?
I am currently wearing my GOAT AK hung on a gold chain.
It's pronounced Le Claire en Français 👀💯
but why tho
100 french people died each time Chris said "Le-Clerk"
Nah it's barely noticeable with Chris US accent.
Yep.. Le Clair for the non French speakers.
Honestly, every Frernch word used in English is twisted and demolished, starting from "revolution" eg. So I think that French people is immune of English pronouncing for decades ago... Good for them.
Cappy is special needs when it comes to pronunciation.
I mean, he's an English speaker, he'll probably pronounce it in... English.
The main reason France produced their tank domestically is because one of their main priorities as far as defense goes is maintaining a very strong domestic defense industry. Which is part of their larger goal of making sure they need to rely as little as possible on other nations when it comes to the production and creation of all of their military technology, especially when it comes to more advanced systems like Tanks, Planes, and precision munitions.
not "is", "was"... 🙄
While this is an honorable goal, it has also lead to a desperate need of pumping money into their defence industry... Hence the search for more European projects with more partners such as jets and tanks
@@mkultra3679 We ruin our economy with our politicans not with our weapons industry. And also by being a Nato member and having thiose stupid sanctions on Russia that ruining europe and all this money and older weapons going to Ukraine.
Developing your own weapons, vehicles, etc. is very expensive. I'd been watching too many Perun videos and the impression I get on designing, building, funding your own tanks, planes, etc. is long and expensive. Only a few countries in the world today can do this, and France is one of the few that can. Even the United States had to get other people on board to lessen the costs of some of these projects, i.e. the F-35.
The other thing people like about being able to design, produce their own systems is the political independence. If someone else that you depend for your weapons disagrees with your nation's political goals, they can... "persuade" you to change your stance and do what they say. How do you say "No" to the nation that is in charge of providing and maintaining, replacing your weapon systems?
@@mkultra3679 thats more of a present day issue than anything.
New fighter plane programs need a much more considerable amount of money to produce than before.
Even the F35 program was not financed by the US alone.
I really love french military design, they just keep doing every single thing that I think makes sense. The wheeled vehicles, the emphasis on recognizance and mobility. people shit on them for ww2, but that wasn't france. The real france is, and has always been talented at war.
No one copies the French and the French copy no one
@@angelaferkel7922 And why France defeated Germany in 1944-1945.
@JohnHughesChampigny that was in order soviets, us, british that one that one. France is lucky to exist
@@GhostScout42kinda like your country
@@angelaferkel7922 It wasn't just the french that were defeated in 6 weeks in 1940, it was the UK too. And the UK army could only escape in Dunkerque because the french stayed behind to stall the germans. Nobody was prepared for the new type of war the germans came up with. Would the UK not be a bunch of islands, they would have been conquered as well.
While the French may only be able to field 200 MBTs, let's remember that the UK is estimated to have the ability to field only around 60 MBTs. So France is doing a great deal better than its supposed equal across the channel
You get it. The UK is safe behind the Channel. British tanks are mostly required for an expeditionary force, less so for home defence.
@@stanislaskowalski7461 and france is safe behind its nuclear umbrella, no one without a death wish will try to invade france nowadays especially when france nuclear doctrine is to use nuclear weapon as a warning
france in 2023 should focus more on having enough to field 2 to 3 well equiped infantry division to help nato allies and focus the rest of their military budget on sea and air power where they have to protect the overseas territories against country like china
We don't need all these type of toys we just need more nuclear missiles to target all cities in the world!
@@marcsole4261 sometime you need something more powerful than a stern warning but less than a nuclear missile
@ganyumaindayone1112 The nuclear umbrella is a desperate solution. No one really wants to use it. In fact, it is not obvious that it is a sufficient deterrence. There are circumstances that would make it difficult to use, when responsibilities are blurry and the flow of events is complicated. It would theoretically protect us from an all-out attack. Not so much in case of a campaign that happens to go bad. Being a nuclear power doesn't protect Russia from strikes and incursions on its territory. The situation is simply not bad enough for risking nuclear annihilation.
France has quietly been one of the world's top weapon exporters since the end of WW2. Any country that wants quality modern western equipment and can't/won't work with the US will typically buy French.
Or steal it if you're Israel...
what country can't buy from the US but can buy French ? Most of the time Us & France ban sales on the same countries...
@@coolsonic8982 i believe it is more complex than that, yes sometimes france ban the whole weapon but will still sale the part of it or other technology
@@ItsAVolcano....India wants to remain non aligned. Makes sense in their neighborhood.
@@coolsonic8982 Saudis, UAE, Turkiye?
Honestly you have to admire the French for preserving their indigenous industrial capacity, loosing it or purchasing other countries weapons does make you dependent on the supplier and it's always possible they'll choose to stab you in the back when it's inconvenient.
Australian submarine deal…
@@fairybeliever4479If only it was not that. The US is actively trying to screw the French in every arms deal happening
it has major drawbacks, cost being the biggest. The French do not produce anywhere near the US or have anywhere near the budgets, this means small production runs of high-quality high-cost armaments. French have had and will likely continue to promote an indigenous market for all things French, not just arms. The stab in the back thing is a big spit in the face of the Americans, after all France and America have long been allies and have never fought a war on opposing sides since the French Indian war, before American independence.
@@edwxx20001 The money is spent on French businesses and so its a win for us. More than paying foreign goods cheaper. We also made a profit on numerous orders, we sell a ton of optics and radars _(since thanks to our continuous investement we currently lead in a few niches in that field)_ to even the US or RU before the war and did buy certain pieces from the US as well
Literally the world 2rd weapon exporter with 30b in 2022, which sized to our military spending is 50%, when the us sold 150b and spent 750b aka 20%, so dont worry we do break even from producing our own shit
Thats as much as a "spit to the face" of the US as the US America first policy is a spit to the face of all european nations. Nothing personal, just business. Dont act silly mate
@@edwxx20001 Stab in the back is a big word. More realistically it's just keeping sovereignty.
When you rely on someone, you are accountable and when you do something that doesn’t align with their interest (which is always the case if you are not entirely submissive) they will naturally use that string and sour that sours the relationship.
Turkey is a good example of military reliance gone wrong.
That’s why I think mutual strategic autonomy is a keystone for long-term relationship.
Allies are not vassals.
Sadly, joint ventures between France and Germany almost never work. Germans always try to get most of the profits (economical, industrial, strategic,...) from those and don't hesitate to con France any way they can ....
Bruh France is a notoriously difficult Partner in that regard.
Germany has done plenty of joint developments while France tends to back out of them
@@heyho4770 The Concorde was a commercial failure but an engineering succes and was a franco-british program, the jaguar same thing (idk if it was exported tho but it was a military plane so it's not the subject here), the FREMM (new frigate) with Italy... I'm sure I can find more cooperations project that worked with France, only listing the ones i remember
Because Germans want a tech transfer from the French, so that’s clearly the problem.
French want to share the money, but has the know how.
@@olinxy6886 Tornado,Eurofighter, the Boxer, The U212A and if we're not very accurate even the Leopard 2 and the Abrams. (both were results of the MBT 70 Project and both copied from each other for the sake of standartisation, adapting parts from both countries)
Funnily for the Tornado, The Eurofighter and the Boxer France either backed out of the previous program or quit the program
@@heyho4770 For the Eurofighter, it's not a great plane, it's ok but every counterpart on the market have all something if it's not everything better. Grippen is less expensive, F35 is more stealth and the Rafale is just better in all points. France backed out because they needed a light two engine multi-role fighter that could go on aircraft carrier where Germany and England wanted a heavier air-air focus plane. France made her own prototype who was better than the english one and a real two engine (the english one had a common air entry for both engines, so their are not independant). Seeing this, France backed out, you're not going to pay for a shitty plane that does not suit your needs. Germany backed out of the MBT70 project to develop the Leopard 2 on its own... For the SCAF, germany try again to re-negociate the agreements, buy F35 and want a free knowledge transfert... Like wft. For the MGCS, the deal was 50/50 between KNW and Nexter, now they want to renegociate a 33/33/33 because Rheinmetal want to go in... So 66% of german compagnie. In top of that, Rheinmetal want to force their 130mm canon instead of the Nexter ASCALON who seems to be better and with a better evolution capacity (and they want to force something after getting added after LOL). Germany is also buying new Leopart 2A8, that question the necessity for the Bundeswehr to develop quickly a new tank, that France desesperably need.
I think the French did an incredible job on the LeClerc and the French military doctrine matches up with Korean military doctrine, which was applied to the K2.
When the K2 was in the initial stages of development, the generals were asked, what's the #1 thing required for a modern tank? And the general's answer was "networking," not firepower or armor.
Because it's necessary to combine info from satellites, other tanks and other data sources to get a complete picture of the battlefield, download GPS coordinates of targets, and hit with 100% accuracy.
I also agree with the French and Korean military in that armor is overrated. Modern radar can lock on the GPS coordinates of any tank once it fires, so it's necessary to fire and move, no amount of armor is enough to protect from counterfire of 120 mm tank shells or 155 mm howitzer rounds fired with GPS guidance.
There's a reason why the French are the world's #2 in weapon sales. They're smart as hell, they design their weapons with a coherent, effective military doctrine in mind, and they're good quality weapons. It's a winning formula.
are you for real saying artillery radars are used to counter tanks? 😆
@@phunkracy Replace the "radar" word with fire control systems and it's probably what the person above you meant. In Ukraine apparently you optimistically have 5 minutes before artillery hits you when drone and GPS spotting is about. 40 seconds at worst if it's about counter battery fire in artillery duels.
Honestly south-korean military is highly underated in my opinion. One of the rare western nation trying to regain as much sovereignty as possible from pour common invasive ally
And who is #1?
@@willyvereb there is no such thing as a counter battery FCS. The guy is just confused.
3:35. This actually goes deeper than that. The vast majority of armament engineers serve themselves in combat regiments years before they are even given an opportunity to become armament engineers, at a leutenant-level position and for at least 5 months. Meaning that not only the high brass at DGA are armament engineers, they had first-hand experience with whatever armament their predecessors designed and accepted to production 10 years prior.
This not only adds to their actual understanding of how the weapons will be used and what is important, but also provides an additional motivation to not fuck up. Because if you do, you **will** end up with a fist in your face from a junior colleague who barely survived a shitty decision of yours.
Wow.
Bullshit
Well it does fuck up from time to time, I can think of the Rafale pilots that have been asking for a more powerful engine than the M88 for years because they struggle in their exercises when maneuvering at higher altitudes, and they know for a fact that it's been years since the manufacturer (Safran) has developed more powerful engines fit for rafales. But the request has simply been brushed of by the DGA as a simple pilot's caprice.
Thanks for the message, very interesting, and great way to work.
@@lucaj8131 Yeah, I would bet this has more to do with budget than anything else. French armed forces keep reducing the volume of orders every year due to budget cuts (people have been screaming that 200 operational tanks is not sufficient for at least a decade, to no avail).
Jet engine refit is not a joke - you basically need to re-validate the entire platform because you changed the emissions signature, stress on the frame, ....
Realistically, that's an improvement that's probably planned for the iteration, but the chances that there is a refit as we are switching to increasingly integrated and standoff air combat role are slim, and a multi-billion upgrade package is likely to never get prioritized.
I dunno if the thumbnail saying 'moist' expensive was an accident or not, but it made me laugh.
WAT: Wet Ass Tank
Tankussy
It's French. Of course it's wet and smelly
It ranks pretty high on the Moist Meter, Charlie would be proud.
I call it the moist maker.
Super interesting. So few people actually cover modern French-made weapons when there are so many out there. I'm French and I know so little about the performance of our kit.
Love this channel. I get my information from a lot of great place who really do good research and contextualisation but this one is really enjoyable as well cause you manage to get in great context and analysis while keeping things light and actually fun, but not superficial. Don't know how you manage but great job!
France before the War in Ukraine was the 3rd expotator of weapons in the World so in général it is not as US ans UK would like it would be
France is under rated for weapons because of our shitty dirigeants
fyi: The Leclerc tank was named in honor of Marshal Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, a commander of the Free French Forces, who led the 2nd Armoured Division in World War II.
It is the name of the Marshal who liberated France and Paris in WW II after the landing in Provence on August 15, 1944.
The latest French APCs have networked AI that activates the active protection system when the unit is under attack. Great stuff. Their recon vehicles have missiles with 2 kilometer range they can fire without even seeing the target. You see the wheeled French vehicles and think they are rinky-dink but there is a lot more going on there.
uuuh my ai doesnt even know the date
@@plsdonttttt*We, the populace, never get the really good stuff.*
unless we see it on the battlefield in ukraine its all blah blah
Now the !rench AI will surrender automatically without the french having to even put their hands up!
@@flycrack7686 we frenchies have nothing to do in this corrupt failed state still known as "Ukraine" but, hopefully, not for mch longer. we have the same traitors in government and in the top ranks of our armed forces though and those will drag us in a useless fight against Russia while they import millions of new replacement "french" citizens... 😑
Frankly, I'm disappointed. I came here for the "Moist Expensive Tank", as promised in the thumbnail.
It started as a typo, ended as a meme
Being named the Leclerc i expected it to be cheaper. Eleclerc has better prices than Lidl
Also I love how the Leclerc fairs in battle too
It's French, so probably thanks to all that cream & butter.
I love how the stock image of the arrow still says "RED ARROW" 💀
Inside source said that Leclerc tank is the most expensive because it was introduced too late to the market. It was a bit more advanced that the other tanks at the time but most costumers already bought (or going to) tanks from other countries. This bad timing (and geopolitics, like USA umbrella) led to fewer tanks sold, so the price did not go down very much unlike the others. Vicious circle.
Yes abrams And leopard 2 where produces in the 80. 10 years before the leclerc
@@tomamuntean5948 but theyre also worse
@@IStMl Yes, but for countries that already acquired battle tanks there was no real need to purchase any Leclerc. They already had what they needed
Because compared to the Abrams, or German Leos, the Leclerc was produced 10 to 15 years later. Consequences: only a few export contracts not won beforehand by both leos and abrams. Then the technologies used such as the autoloader, are 10 to 15 years more advanced thus more expansive.
You forgot the data link, when a leclerc see an enemy, it send in real time the info to the artillery, it has also many captops for NBC, it does chimical analysis, the autoloader allow to reload in the moves at hight speed what Ambrams or leo2 can't.
Lmao what king of troll your are
its called Battle Management System and can be found in newer Leopard 2 and Abrams variants too
@@MrAerodynamite what troll? The datalink? It exists. The fact that a leopard/abrams won't be able to load in the same conditions that a Leclerc does? That's true. Try to manipulate a 25kg and 1m long ammunition and feed it in the gun chamber while the tank is bouncing over bumps at over 30mph. This won't be a fun experience and good luck to reliably feed the gun every 6s 😏
@@Lars.171 Yes 30 years after....
@@MrAerodynamite Just for a post? The reality is here leclerc is a 4th gen tank like the K1 while leo 2 and m1 or Challenger are still old tanks from the 1980 area just upgraded, just heavier and heavier but based on the old MBT70 tech.
This isn’t only expensive irl, it’s even more expensive In war thunder
lmao
It hurts that I can't disagree with this..
Or you can say that the expensively price is real both in game and irl. So I have a title for her: "The Steel of Elegante".
I love that people are willing to risk treason for the game
Broke an instant SL is gone beyond
The French style of autoloader is a great design. Like it or not, the updates made to autoloader tech have made manual loading obsolete. I'm confident the Abrams-X or whatever new MBT the US adopts will have an autoloader. There's literally no valid reason to insist on a crew member to load the gun in the 21st century.
How about having a fourth pair of hands to do basic field maintenance on the tank? That's nothing to sneeze at.
What will finally remove the loader from Western tanks will be the weight of the ammo. The 130mm round in the prototype KF-51 Panther weighs 70 lbs.
@@wmtford4043 You can have a 4th person without sticking with the objectively outdated notion of using them as a loader.
Abram X is confirmed to have an autoloader
@@wmtford4043 How about no ? No autoloader means lower combat capacity _(the gun is stabilized but i can guarantee you the hulk isnt at 30+ MPH, so have fun reloading as fast, aka one round every 10s)_
That and the need for more inside space to accomodate for a 4th crew member, which in turn means more total armor volume required, hence weight, which forces a compromise on mobility
A French style autoloader is objectively the best choice, heck even the US ended up backtracking
@@wmtford4043 le prochain char français sera en 140 mm avec son canon ascalon de nexter
i think its awesome how quickly cappy has gone from "funny infantry guy who makes jokes about your platoon's knife guy and the 2nd lt getting lost, to a genuine and (attempting to be) unbiased military journalist
France designs and manufacturers theirnown weapons in order to maintain an independent defense industry.
Interesting design. Given the weight of most main battle tanks, I can see armies focusing less on them and more on lighter, more mobile platforms that they can support the tanks with like the Stryker platform. So the fact that they only have 200 of them might not be such an issue if they have a vehicle that can complement them well.
Specialized tank-killing munitions have gotten too good. There's no point in giving your tank the ability to resist cannon shells since it's realistically never going to fight another tank, and even if it does, depleted uranium makes a mockery of any armor light enough to be practical. And there's no point giving it fancy composite armor plates to resist ATGMs when it's just going to get murdered by top-attack munitions. The future is small, cheap(er), lightweight tanks with high maneuverability and lots of electronic warfare capability.
Still not enough. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit more but since production cost is a bit too high that will have to do.
@@dark7element That kind of depends on how well it is being supported. If it is supported by vehicles that can shoot down or deal with potential threats to it before it gets close enough to harm it then becomes less of an issue.
In this situation the "tank" would be the big threat as it carries the heavy weaponry while other vehicles support it and move in a protective formation around it. Think of navy battle groups and how they usually focus around a carrier with the other ships providing escort and protection for it.
@@dragonslayer2107 In that case, the "main battle tank" of the future might be more like an armored anti-aircraft vehicle with missiles that can also hit surface targets, than a conventional battle tank. I just don't see how having a big cannon will be worth it anymore. If you're gonna use a big cannon against the enemy you can park it well away from the frontline, everything has pin-point accuracy on any target that can be observed these days. Even tanks are getting taken out by direct hits from mortars in this war.
@@dark7element Probably. Big guns may we relegated to artillery in the future but remember that those smart weapons are expensive and harder to make than more traditional weapons.
So, while the smart weapons may do more damage, they are not as easy to replace as the dumb weapons.
As such, while smart weapons are good, it is always a good idea to have weapons that you can fall back on that can be more easily mass produced for times of prolonged conflict.
The main point you forget about the real reason of the rising cost compared to the scale of production for the Leclerc, come from the fact that it was designed to be the best tank in the world in the 1980's, and it was. Then came the collapse of the soviet Union and the command of 1200 were divided by 3, to get to ~400.
il est sortie plus tard des usine et les pays européens avait déjà acheté de léopard qui était vendu quelques années plus tôt
Love the growth of content on this channel. Crushing it Task & Purpose!!!
Best looking of the western MBT and underrated
Great and fair report. The only capability that you are missing which is probably critical and unique in active combat to the Leclerc it's its ability to fire multiple times without loosing sight of its target. This is becaus it's using an autoloader and the canon does not need to be lifted up or down to eject and reengage a new ammo. Therefore it makes it much more efficient against moving targets and especially shooting at the same one in sequence to destroy it.
Else than that it's a great summary that you have done and in my view its biggest advantage comes from the autoloader and therefore 3 personnel needed to operate it vs 4 in almost all western tanks.
It's biggest "disadvantage" even though the French army says it's been fixed is its availability for combat and eventually light weight which means that passive armor might still be a weakness of this tank compared to other Western tanks especially.
I think it's one of the better looking tanks out there.
I watched on TV Front yesterday an Rusian expert on tanks, who had a chance to be in any Western tank, yes such times existed, ranking Leclerk above all others.
But in a war Leopard would still be his choice.Seen the interview too...
@@olivierfaber8478 It is very hard to predict anything about war, and easy to compare technical caracteristics in stnad-by sittuation. French were having allways original and soffisticated technics, many people think that Citroen DS-19 and later DS-21 was superrior than any Mercedes of his class at the time, still they were buing Mercedes. Not to speak about NSU Ro-80, which in fact led NSU to bankrupcy. But seems to me that all West is sending their tanks to Ukraine to give a chance to Russian to examine weak spots and to establish right tactic aagainst, as they seems already made for Himmars missile system. I wanted only to say that I believe in the first oppinion of Russian expert, that Leclerk is technically better tank, and nobody knows the result in real war.
@@ljubastojanovic608 дайте ссылку плиз
@@olivierfaber8478 What do you prefer if you are given the choice to go into battle in a tank, the Abraham or the Leclerc?, be honest, answer that to see.
@@clouetjp769 en 2035 dans aucun tank!
The seeminglt unrelated expression, the red arrow, The deliberate mispelling. Your thumbnail game is on point, man...
3:28, very accurate and relevant highlight. Indeed, almost all the engineers (who have a officer status ) in the "DGA" are graduated from the France's most prestigious engineering university, l'Ecole Polytechnique, which is also a military university (the students have 1 year of military traning and internship during their engineer curriculum but aren't really supposed to become real soldiers. Military Academies are more suitable)
False
Military engineers at DGA are around 10% of total number of engineers.
And less than 30% of these military engineers are from Polytechnique, most are from ENSTA Bretagne.
Thanks! Intelligent and informative, well presented.
It's such a shame those Goat guns don't fire tiny little rounds or at least make them into cap guns, I loved cap guns when I was a kid, hey I still do.
The French make some excellent weapons.
French enginering is always on the magical /divine level or grand MERDE.
It seems there is nothing in between.
@@obelic71 exactly, so as french tactics and way of being... us french take great pride in never being average but rather shit or Grandiose XD
@@obelic71 When it comes to weapons we're pretty good at it tho. We secured 30b of export contracts in 2022, which had us 2nd to the US only with a fifth of their sales, despite our much smaller economy
@@obelic71 Dude are you French ? You summarized our products and way of life perfectly.
French tank history is a perfect example of this balance lmao.
Leclerc has AMAZING engine. Same power and momentum in VASTLY smaller package than Leopard 2.
Where do you get that from? When I look at the power pack of the Leopard 2 and compare it with the full-size power pack of the Leclerc, than I get the result, that they are almost identical in size.
HAD cause the Hyperbar Engine is not built anymore
@@dnocturn84 Hyperbar engine is the best because you have the 1500hp when you press the pedal instead of others tanks whitch is gradually
@@Yue2000thegamer Interesting and fine for me and I guess this is indeed totally awesome, but how is this related to the original comment or my reply to it? It was solely about the SIZE of the engines, not about any other feature.
@@dnocturn84just compare the hull length of the 2 tanks, the leclerc is smaller by a solid 1m compared to Leo 2, the weights saved is approximately 4T, and I’m not counting the hydropneumatic suspension of Leclerc much lighter than torsion bar of the Leo 2.
It's fair to say most of NATO countries don't have enough tanks reserve to fight in a costly and highly intensive war, not just France.
with the war in Ukraine, nobody has aparantly
@@dupondetdupont8 Relying too much on the u.s.
@@caesarsalad1170 For the offensive capacity yes you are right. But for defense, nukes should be enought.
It's fair to say that the concept of tank has stop to be useful in the late 1944.
@@flamma9034 and yet it is still succesfully used since then... the tank is not dead.
Thank you for the objective and unbiased analysis! FR
no such thing, by nature of what is left out.
First, Pardon my English. I'm French after all 😁😇.
The story is a little bit more complicated. By the way, two events occured. First, the original goal to get a fleet of 1.400/1.500 (sometimes, 1.600 claimed) Leclerc has been reduced to 650 in 1993, then 406. This program is born during the 80's and the cold war. With a "strong" army based on draft and highly educated soldiers coming from universities doing their military duty during one year. A very sophisticated weapon for people with high IQ average. At the end of the cold war, France reduced dramatically the "effort of war" and finally suppressed the conscription.
At the same moment, as France reduced the money for military, GIAT was reorganised and people in factories passed from 30.000 workers to ... 2,500 ! I can testify (I was a consultant for DGA at these times) it was a BIG MESS. At exactly the same moment the Leclerc begun to be produced. The Leclerc production has been an industrial disaster and only the last batches of this tank are conform. So. Over the 406 French MBT produced fro the French Army, only the half is available. Note that the export version for the Emirates has been very trimed. French like their customers. And they liked them with ... a German engine... The French engine is... Very very sophiticated. Too sophisticated. It's nice to compete in Formula One. Not for going at war.
The Leclerc is theoritically a very good machine. Last batches are conform. But the final price of a single machine passed from €8 to €15 millions to be conform to the original target due mainly to the problems I exposed above.
Peux tu parler français stp ? je n'ai pas compris ... 😂🤭
@@vincentminier2146 je fais ce que je peux pour être compris. 15 à priori, ont compris.
@@brunodn9702 sarcasme!
C'est typique de chez nous à priori...
Great job, thanks for you hard work
Always good to hear information from ex military personnel. 👍
Ngl, the reason I like the leclerc is because of how it looks. It just looks mean, meaner than the abrams or the leo or any T-series tank. Honestly LOOKS like a future tank come to life from a concept artist's drawing moreso than a real tank.
tien encore plus méchant Leclerc 140 T4
@@tikou8377quoi ? tu veux parler du Leclerc TERMINATEUR ?
That tank has won the last contest between the tanks of "the most powerful nations"
Challenger 2 won the NATO tanks competition, Leclerc didn't
@@lemangeur2poulet248 100% wrong, that's the Leclerc who won, stop making your story ... Also the Leclerc, even if France had stoped to produce it is the most advanced Tank in the west. You can easily find this info on the net if you need.
Once again your one of my news sources cappy,keep it tight. Tks n keep it up
"MOIST EXPENSIVE"
That was probably a typo, but knowing the proclivities of the Frenchman, it'll probably end up moist anyway.
Frogs like everything kept moist.
@@shortlivedglory3314 That is true.
As a French, just lmao
To those confused on why an autoloader is more fitted against larger enemies such as Russia. A autoloader has an advantage in prolonged fights sense human loaders get tired.
it's also a must have if you're firing on the move at high speed which is the doctrine for Leclerc. If an Abrams/Leo2 loader was trying to load a shell while the M1 was bumping off road at 50kph/32mph, there would be some dead meat inside the tank
@@DC2022 50 kph is just anyway not fast enough to require an auto loader, and since abrams or Leo cannot go faster than that in rough terrain/combat situation, the problem is solved.
@@adx8371nope abrams and leopard 2 are not faster, they're about fast as the leclerc
@@bonkyz1430 Just re read my comment, I wrote "since abrams or leo CANNOT go faster".
But yes, I should clearly have said abrams or leo CANNOT go as fast as Leclerc.
Offroading speed of abrams is said to be 42kph and for leo 45kph.
It seems that Leclerc is actually faster offroading with 50kph.
That could be explained because they're all developping roughly 1100 kW but the Leclerc being slightly less heavy than the two others.
If you want to see a bit of proof of the speed of the leclerc, you can watch this video "Tank Race!!!" (between 2 abrams), then compare it to this one "Course entre un char Leclerc et un VBCI de l’armée française ! (C’est impressionnant)" (between 1 leclerc and 1 VBCI) and you understand it all xD.
@@adx8371 my bad, misreading
France is the only Western country independent from the US militarily in all ways. We conduct operations alone, without needing any help or permission.
God it’s goin to be annoying to bail y’all out for the 3rd time
@@ryanupchurch9683 First time didn't really count you guys arrived when the war was pretty much won, although the help is still appreciated.
@@ryanupchurch9683 As skeleton correctly said: first time didn't count. Second time? We really DIDN'T want or need the U.S--- the Germans let us retain semi-autonomy and were treating all who collaborated well. Look at the state of my beloved France now!!! More Arabs and Africans than French in the capital and most other urban areas now!!!! We would have done much better with German's National Socialism than America's capitalism. Did you know that US soldiers raped many tens of thousands of French women while the Germans less than 500?? My whole family apart from grandpa who was too young to fight at the time, all fought in the French resistance and died in concentration camps as a result; a sacrifice which proved futile seeing where France has gone now, how all the bodies of our ancestors reunited with the soil prematurely from defending the Patrie (motherland) was in vain. Churches set in fire , defiled, and looted every day while more and more mosques are built.
That's not right. We rely on our allies for transportation of huge loads.
And that is called sovereignty. Thank you to General de Gaulle for having always promoted it: in terms of military equipment, planes (Rafale), nuclear electricity, etc.
This sovereignty that many allied countries of the USA no longer have, totally subservient to the pressures and orders of the Americans for their defense.
Very good video. Thanks! And thank you to all the positive comments on the french military industrial complex. Hello from Paris🇨🇵✌️
The quoted price of the Leclerc Tank is quite high because the fine print includes the cost of the development program and infrastructure rather than just the manufacturing cost as of 2001. With the original order of 420 Units, its original unit cost was 5 million Euros which went down to 8 million Euros.
that's not going down
@@auxencefromont1989 its going down in reverse dont worry
Hey Chris,
Good content.
One correction about the armor values you've stated.
AMX 30 has only 80mm thick plates of armor, yes, but the values of M48 you've stated are effective values due to slope, not the thickness itself.
M48's frontal armour was around 100-180mm depending of specific plate and place, which translates to more effective armor due to said slope and angles.
Neither tank had sufficient amount of protection against any of the Soviet tanks, or ATGM's unless we are talking about 3km+ sniping duels (not that shape charged munition is not affected by range due to it's penetration values stemming from a chemical reaction, rather than kinetic energy).
Demande aux Irakiens et leur T72 détruit par nos chars si le blindage Soviètique est meilleur??
il a pas dit ça il a dit que 180mm de protection ou 80mm , dans touts les cas ça n'arretera pas un obus 120mm flèche ou un lance missile antichar@@marc9080
Man, this is such good analysis. Its like you have a whole team helping to produce this stuff.
lol.... guess you missed the thumbnail
Any manufacturer that makes something iconic as the FAMAS F1 earned such a money pit!!
Congrats on the 1 million subs!
Bravo aux ingénieurs français ! Vive la France 🇫🇷
Day 7 of begging Chris to cover more french stuff ( VBCI, Griffon, Jaguar, , Akeron MP...)
I can cross the Lerclerc off the list but i'll keep going !
Got two Goat guns for Father's day a few years ago. They are still proudly on my mantle!
this passive vs active protection is also used in aircraft, for exemple the Rafale isnt fully stealth but with great EW capacity witch alow a better adaptabiliy to new technologies
An incredibly impressive tank!
With a thumbnail that good, how could i not watch the video?
Interesting, thanks you
M1 Abrams unitary cost is at 12M USD, so around 11M Euros.
Leclerc unitary cost is around 8M Euros........
So that mean, beside being better than all his counterpart (from the same generation of course, we must not forget that it's a Grandpa), he's less expensive than a M1
Yeah the title is a lie
The newer Rheinmetall 120mm gun found on the Leopard 2A7 is a 55cal gun. This will also be used on the Challenger 3 as well. The Korean Black Panther uses a autoloader as well, with a 120mm 55Cal gun that was "inspired" by the Rheinmetall gun.
The Leopard 2A6 has the L/55 as well as some Leo 2A5 versions.
Still the vast majority of existing Leo2 are with a 120mm L44 gun.
And K2 Blackpanther architecture is clearly copied from the Leclerc with an autoloader that works the same and and reserve ammo located at the front right side.
( Left side in the Leopard2)
Clearly the Leclerc was the model for the K2 and it shares nearly nothing with the Leopard 2.
@@BFOP15 : Maybe the power pack? The early K2 models were having reliability issues with their Korean (Hyundai?) power packs, and had to source them from Germany. I think they are from the same company that supplies the Leo2.
No the Korean autoloader was inspired by the Leclerc. South Korea's ADD developed the K2's autoloader system based on data obtained on the Leclerc autoloader's at a SATORY event. They copied (read stole) a patented design lmao.
@@rokuthfrench exported leclercs also use German power packs so….
It also looks so good !!
Good video, accurate information at the exception that the c in Leclerc is silent.
at this point warthunder is just a russian government tool to get access to secret weopons quallifications
I love leclerc design, it's interesting
Your goat gun ad is officially the first ad i've ever intentionally watched on youtube
Tanks a lot 😅👍
With the exception of the War Thunder footage, were the turnable animations of the Leclerc done in-house? They are a nice touch.
Most expansive because 1) few were built and 2) it was designed to be extremely sophisticated.
" sophisticated" blablah
@@flycrack7686 Average "mad but cant come up with a counter argument" mf
@@Jugement you should be the top reply not the crackhead above you
everything french does is expensive for a good reason : food, wine, parfum, tank...
This would technically apply to Tanks such as the C1 Ariete and Type 10, but it doesn't which is oddly enough.
Good review o/
Pretty sure I filmed this drone shot lol, Menton south of France just next to the Italian border :)
VIVE LA FRANCE !!!!🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷
I like how all of NATO went in the 70s "We got scared of their new hyped up tank/plane and went bit overboard"...resulting in Leopards, Abrams, Leclercs, F15s which, even after 50years, humiliate every follow up superweapon Russia came up with, while only getting relatively small upgrades (instead of new designs or significant redesigns).
@14:26 "..with all the intellect and finesse you'd expect from a couple of lower enlisted bros.."
I luv Cappy's self-deprecating humor!!
Congrats on hitting 1 million subs!
he's hitting THAT very often
France is in 1st position (by far) the country that has won the most wars it is this country that has been the most dominant for 1000 years it is therefore logical that the French have the most competent army in the world. combat and military independence with nuclear power, etc.
And even if France has been taken hostage by the Parisians since the French Revolution, this country remains very interesting in terms of military culture.
what are you on about? a country can go from being strong with a capable military to being having doubts and a weak or useless military. best example: France in WW1 was strong, a few years later in 1940 it was toast.
Ukraine in 2014 was toast with a useless military and look at them now. they kick ruzzia's ass every chance they get
@@embreis2257 tbh, French military in 1940 was toast only in comparison of German army and german new strategy and tactics. Againt nazi Germany (80 millions strong), Poland, USSR and other countries lost a lot of huge battles the same way as France did between 1939 and 1942.
You should also look into the Scorpion program and in feptht intk their new Jaguar IFV and Gryphon armored personnel carrier.
You might also notice that the way these work is pretty interesting
Hey Cappy, I don't see the podcast link. Sounds interesting though
I’m very happy with my Goat Gun. Definitely nice to have in a shelf under the TV.
"As you know more bigger and more expensive means more betterer." I love it!
The Rheinmetall RH 120 with L55 is actually more common by now than the L44 gun...
Not true
On Leopard tanks? Yes. But all M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams use the L44 with DU ammunition
@@Lars.171 you got me, I forgot the Abrams still has the smaller gun...
@@mkultra3679 And that's a problem
3 Billion Tank Dollar Deal? holy smokes... what a crazy time to be alive
Impressive specs. French know how to build a tank!
Only one tank damaged in Yemen.
I wonder if a javelin missile could destroy this tank.
Its designed to pen the top of the turret on the engine bed so pretty much any tank does get fucked up by a javelin.
@@rac4687 Without active protection systems yes, which is why modern tanks do have these. Flares to mess up with heat signature and the likes
The damage will also not be as unsustainable compared to old soviet designs. The hulk might be breached and the crew hurt, but the tank wont be cooked up from the inside by its own ammunition detonating
@@rac4687 lol elegant way to say it.
A proper javelin hit would definitely destroy a Leclerc or at least rend it inoperative, that is not to say the tank is bad nor that the Javelin is unstoppable but rather that if it makes contact it does what it's supposed to do.
That is however what the french designers or the people who make the decisions understood apparently a bit earlier than others, there's no effective passive way to protect yourself fully from contemporary anti-tank weapons, they are just too effective at what they do to withstand them without heavily compromising other aspects of the tank's performance, so you need to either destroy them (active defense system), make them miss (mobility but also active defense systems) or limit their effectiveness by just maneuvering too swiftly for the enemy to properly deploy them, the last being a bit of a whack a mole strategy, if you make high mobility your main concern in both your organization, strategy and material, by the time the enemy is alerted to your presence somewhere and start deploying fitting weapons to contest you, you aren't there anymore, so those weapons are effectively rendered useless, since there's just no targets for them to hit.
Of course this strategy isn't supposed to hard counter these systems, ambushes and correct movement predictions by the enemy are an occurrence that will happen, but it will definitely make them quite a bit less effective on the perspective of the conflict at large it will also force them on the back foot, in the sense they react to you and not the opposite, which is a considerable offensive advantage. Or you force them to dilute their armament along the front lines which leaves them open to concentrated spearhead type attacks.
I get the sense that the Leclerc was built with that general idea in mind. Get in fast, destroy objective faster, get out even faster.
All tanks can be destroyed. Leclerc, Leopard, Abrams. All !
I am quite surprised to learn the Abrams isn't the world's most expensive tank.
The leopard 2a7 is more expensive as well as obviously the leclerc
It helps that the US produced thousands of them, alongside keeping the production line open
Despite of how chunk the M1 is
Obviously Abram missing a lot feature compare to anyone else
Abrams took decades to develop, add onto and expand production. Here the build up goes straight into the tank near the end.
@@orphanslayer6546 the Leopard 2 is only that expensive because it was made as an everything sandwich by a non-existent military with a circumcised military industrial complex so you get a King Tiger wannabe with a high budget run. The actual going price for a Leopard makes it a good competitor for the Abrams for what’s thrown in meaning it actually is the (legal) German equivalent of a modern Abrams but if a less fancy, bulky and overkill (while still modern) package is considered the price should be even better while the performance difference is subjective (you can’t buy American stuff freely anyway). At that stage it’s actually more of an Abrams with a skill gap.
The Rheinmetall 120mm smoothbore gun also comes in the L/55 variation which is standard on all Leopard 2 tanks from the A6 variant onwards, introduced in 2001.
You had me at “betterer”
As always, well balanced review, thanks Chris. p.s. Guy is pronounced differently in French
I'm so disappointed that there was no collab with "Not What You Think"
The modern French Army really is just the US Army on a tight budget and I love it 🇫🇷🇪🇺
I've only worked with their NBC troops in a joint exercise as a Swiss NBC decontamination soldier. Long story short, they were unmotivated, lazy asses. Meanwhile us conscript soldiers, we were motivated and knew what we were doing.
For what they're paid, they weren't worth the money they were getting. I expected more of professional soldiers.
I don't know their style of leadership in the NBC troops, but ours is excellent with the NCOs pretty much only supervising while we soldiers do the rest of the thinking. Which isn't hard because over half are university students.
@@etuanno ok and?
@@etuanno Un suisse qui insulte les français comme c'est original...
The whole specificity of the US militaryis that it has a massive budget... the whole specificity if the entire french military is that it is expected to perform as well as the US with a soft caramel and a paperclip dating back from the Franco-Prussian war.
No, seriously, if you thought the marines were the poster boy for hand me down equipement, you haven't looked at the french army. They litteraly sent dudes in Afghanistan with WW1 periscope. I'm pretty sure there is somewhere a full stock of MAT-49 that was already outdated 40 years ago but is still kept because "it can be usefull".
@@baozenfhei9076 Toujours les mêmes choses. ;) Pourtant, si c'est ton travail, on peut s'attendre à ce que tu le fais bien et avec motivation.
"Sadly, a tank sized beret.... "
Hilarious 😆
Where's the link to the podcast?
*_"Moist Expensive Tank"_* damn didn't realise Charlie had a contract with the french military to design and produce a tank lmfao
When I think of 'Most Expensive' I don't think of something French made. That's not a dig at the French. Usually they stick to making things pretty cost effective like the Rafale.
It's 100 million per. Cost effective doesn't come to mind!
@@pashapasovski5860 the rafale costs between 63 million (rafale C), 73 million (rafale B) and 78 million (rafale M), the cost of 100 million per plane was used by a youtube channel which simply divided the purchase price by the number of aircraft forgetting (but is it really an oversight?) that the contract also included missile stocks and aircraft maintenance for 10 years
@genzalarboa3110 India could have had its own production of cheaper and better fighters, if it stayed the course!
@@pashapasovski5860 India has its own production of fighters with the HAL Tejas even if it still has a lot of foreign elements (French-British missiles, US engines, etc.),
it remains globally inferior to the latest versions of the most modern aircraft which remains a great achievement since it is their first jet fighter
If you compare to the F35 program, it's cheap. 😅
In case of doubt, a consonnant at the end of a word in french is silent, unless followed by an E (and the E will be silent).
Leclerc named TROMPE LA MORT in your game, It's funny that i already saw one called like that, when I was still in the army.
It used to be the most expensive. However, since it is not in the production now, it is hard to say what is the current price of it.
Thanks Cappy.
I don't know why more European countries don't produce more weapons themselves -it cost more but the money is circulated back into the economy and you retain skills
I think it's certainly going to help them financially, but in a war where the United States applies, if they had their own tank, they wouldn't be able to have stock to repair their destroyed vehicle.
Because you need to be able to produce them. Tech wise in Europe not a lot of country can withstand with the tech level of the US, so they buy US product.
France is one of the rare country to be able to stay on top in every military sector.
@@GORANJOVIC631 il faut dire que depuis 2023 on est 2ᵉ exportateur d'arme au monde devant la Russie donc ouais, on se débrouille.
Hey Chris, great video as ever!! can you tell me the name of the name of book by French Journalist Stefan ferrardo please ( 8:11)?
I think the picture shown at 7:40 is actually an turkish Leopard A4 which was knocked out in Syria. You can´t see any of the addon armor the Leclerc has, also the commanders optics are missing.
yup totally
AMX-30 was contemporary with the M-60.