AMX-56 Leclerc
Channel: Main Battle Tank
Date: 2023-03-01

The AMX-56 "Leclerc" has become the pinnacle of French combat tank design in the modern world. It represents the current main battle tank of the French Army and provides a powerful - albeit complicated and ultimately expensive - solution for French armored corps needs. Despite its modern qualities and promising specifications, the AMX-56 Leclerc - as a combat tank at least - remains largely unproven on the modern battlefield while its comparable Western sisters - the German Leopard 2, American M1 Abrams and British Challenger 2 - have all given a good account of themselves throughout various actions. The Leclerc has been operationally deployed in peacekeeping endeavors in both Kosovo (both French and UAE Leclercs featured) and Lebanon. At the time of its inception, the Leclerc was the first combat tank in production on French soil over some 30 years marking it as a national symbol of pride to a certain extent. To date, the Leclerc is utilized by only the French and the United Arab Emirates while the UAE also shared in some of the project's developmental and manufacture costs.

As early as the mid-1960s, French authorities reviewed their armored corps (at this time being spearheaded by the AMX-30 B2 Main Battle Tank, a contemporary to the American M60A3 Patton, the German Leopard 1 and the British Chieftain) and found their forces lacking against the might of the upcoming Soviet types. As such, work began on a more modern solution even while the AMX-30 was beginning to manage a foothold in the French Army inventory. Requirements were refined throughout the 1970s to which, in 1980, the Germans and French entered into a collaborative main battle tank initiative in an effort to replace their respective aged Leopard 1 and AMX-30 stocks. The partnership intended to keep development and production costs to a minimum while producing a capable, modern solution that was both sound and logistically-friendly. However, as with most multi-national MBT development initiatives, the partnership fell to naught with each party going their separate ways. The Germans went on to produce their excellent Leopard 2 family of vehicles while the French persisted with a design all their own under the designation of AMX-48/"Engin de Combat Principal" - or "ECP" - beginning in 1983. Over a lengthy period, various developmental components were tested and further developed before the first true prototype (along with five others) was realized in 1989. After formal testing by the French Army, the new tank - now designated as the "AMX-54" - was adopted into service. Production began in 1990 (at GIAT Tarbes for the turret component and GIAT Roanne for the hull and final assembly) to which deliveries began in 1991 and formal service entry beginning in 1992. The tank was given the name of "Leclerc" after French General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque who commanded Free French Army forces (2nd Armored Division) towards German-occupied Paris in World War 2 (which led to its ultimate liberation). Procurement of the tank was granted to the UAE in 1993 to which formal operational use by the UAE Army began in 1996.

Compared to other main battle tanks of Western origination, the Leclerc took to some rather alternative design directions. Dimensionally, she followed in line with Western tank offerings as a whole though she became one of the lightest modern main battle tanks in service at 54,500 kilograms (54.5 tons). Internally, and unlike the Leopard 2, M1 Abrams or Challenger 2, the Leclerc was completed with an autoloader (manufactured by Creusot-Loire) to manage the loading/reloading function of the main gun. This feature is more commonplace in Soviet tank designs which allows a smaller overall profile while reducing the required crew to just three personnel - the tank commander, gunner and driver. In the Leclerc, the driver is seated at the front left of the hull with the gunner seated right of the main gun in the turret and the commander seated left of the main gun, also in the turret.