AMX - 56 Leclerc The Leclerc is a main battle tank ( MBT ) built by Nexter of France . It was named in honour of General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque who led the French element of the drive towards Paris while in command of the Free French 2nd Armoured Division ( " 2ème DB " ) in World War II . The Leclerc is in service with the French Army and the army of the United Arab Emirates . In production since 1991 , the Leclerc entered French service in 1992 , replacing the venerable AMX 30 as the country ' s main armoured platform . With production now complete , the French Army has a total of 406 Leclercs and the United Arab Emirates Army has 388 . History . In 1964 studies were initiated about a possible replacement vehicle for the AMX 30 : the " Engin Principal Prospectif " . In 1971 , in view of the inferiority of the AMX 30 in comparison to the new generation of Soviet tanks about to be introduced , the " Direction des Armements Terrestres " ordered the beginning of the " Char Futur " project . In 1975 a working committee was created that in 1977 agreed on a list of specifications . In February 1980 however , a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Federal Republic of Germany involving the joint development of a MBT , called the " Napoléon I " in France and " Kampfpanzer III " in Germany . Fundamental disagreements about its desired configuration led to a failure of this cooperation in December 1982 . It was announced that a purely French battle tank would be developed , called " EPC " ( " Engin Principal de Combat " ) . Importation of foreign equipment , like the M1 Abrams , the Leopard 2 , or the Merkava had been studied and rejected . In contrast with most Western programmes of the time , much consideration was given to active , besides passive protection , to limit the overall mass of the vehicle . Mobility for evading incoming fire and firing control were given particular attention . Nevertheless it was a stated design goal to at least double the protection against KE - penetrators in comparison to the level attained in then current MBTs of the fifty ton weight class , the latter indicated at about 400 mm RHA equivalency , the higher level at the same time protecting against shaped charges . Partnership with a foreign state was sought to limit the cost per unit , and this was found when the United Arab Emirates ordered 436 vehicles , adding to the 426 units already planned for the French Army . In 1986 , the project was started under the name of " Leclerc " , six prototypes being built swiftly . Mass production started in 1990 with the four - unit first batch , used mainly for comparative tests in foreign countries . The 17 units of batches 2 and 3 were shipped , with improvements in the turret and in the hull armour . These units were diagnosed with problems in the engine and suspension , and were quickly retired . Batches 4 and 5 were better built , eliminating the recurrent problems in the powerplant , and are still in service , after having been refitted at the end of the 1990s . The second series started with batch 6 , with an added climate control system in the right rear of the turret . Batch 7 introduced a transmission system to the command vehicle , and a data system giving instantaneous vision of the state of all battle tanks and acquired targets . It also incorporated minor improvements in the visor . Batch 8 was a modernisation of the electronic system , and batch 9 replaced the visor with a SAGEM Iris system with thermal imaging , which allows acquisition of targets at a greater range . All previous batches will be modernised up to the standards of batch 9 from 2005 . In 2004 , batch 10 was presented , incorporating new information systems which could share the disposition of enemy and friendly units to all vehicles and new armour . This is the beginning of the 96 - unit third series . By 2007 , 355 tanks should be operational , 320 of them incorporated in four regiments , each of 80 Leclerc vehicles . As of 2010 after a French defence review each of the 4 regiments operates 60 Leclerc tanks for a total of 240 in operational units with a further 100 Leclercs in combat ready reserve . The four regiments are : Characteristics . Armament . The Leclerc is equipped with a GIAT ( Nexter ) CN120 - 26 120mm smoothbore cannon . This cannon is theoretically capable of firing the same NATO standard 120mm rounds as the German Leopard 2 and US M1 Abrams , but in practice only custom French - produced ammunition is issued . The gun is insulated with a thermal sleeve and has an automatic compressed air fume extraction system instead of the usual bore evacuator . The Leclerc has a unique autoloading system which was specifically designed for it , and reduces the crew to three by eliminating the human loader . The turret of the Leclerc was designed around the auto - loading system in order to avoid the problems common to other tanks with an autoloader . The Leclerc autoloader allows a rate of fire of 12 shots per minute and holds 22 rounds of ready ammunition ; it can accommodate up to five different types of ammunition at once , although like most autoloader systems it cannot change ammunition types once a round has been loaded . The most common types are the armour piercing fin - stabilised discarding sabot ( APFSDS ) with a tungsten core and the high explosive anti - tank ( HEAT ) round . There are 18 other rounds available for reload . A Leclerc tank can fire while traveling at a speed of 50 km / h on a target 4 , 000 metres away . The gun is 52 calibre s long instead of the 44 calibres common on most tanks of the Leclerc ' s generation , giving the rounds a higher muzzle velocity . The Leclerc is also equipped with a 12 . 7 mm coaxial machine gun and a remote - controlled 7 . 62mm antiaircraft machine gun , whereas most other NATO tanks use 7 . 62mm weapons for both their coaxial and top machine gun mounts ; the major exception is the American M1 Abrams , which has a 7 . 62mm coaxial machine gun and two top - mounted machine guns , one 7 . 62mm and one 12 . 7mm . Protection . The Leclerc has the Galix combat vehicle protection system from GIAT , which fires a variety of smoke grenade s and infra red screening rounds , as well as anti - personnel grenades . The hull and the turret are made of welded steel fitted with modular armour , which can be replaced easily for repair or upgraded over the years . The French army in the late seventies rejected Chobham armour as being overly specialised in its optimisation to defeat hollow charge - weapons ; it therefore opted to develop a steel perforated armour system , comparable to that on the early Leopard 2 . When the Leclerc was introduced in the early nineties this was still considered adequate , due to the larger thickness of its modules compared to the armour of other modern western tanks , made possible — for a given weight limit — by the compact design of the tank as a whole . However during the nineties standards for tank armour protection increased , as exemplified by the Leopard 2A5 , its main rival on the export market , being fitted with an additional spaced armour system . Thus it was decided to follow the Germans ( Leopard 2A4 ) and British ( Challenger 2 ) in their application of a titanium - tungsten system , which was introduced to the Leclerc in 2001 , in Batch 10 . The inner spaces are filled with NERA . Fire control and observation . The Leclerc has a FINDERS battle management system and an ICONE TIS digital communication system which integrates data from other tanks and upper levels of command . The Leclerc ' digital fire control system can be operated independently by the gunner or the commander , and it offers real time integrated imaging from all of the tank ' s sensors and sights , including the gunner ' s SAVAN 20 stabilised sight , developed by SAGEM and the driver ' s night / day OB - 60 vision system from Thales Optrosys . The system can track six targets concurrently and is very much like a similar system made by the same company for the Challenger 2 tank of the United Kingdom . Propulsion . The Leclerc has an eight - cylinder , Wärtsilä ( ex SACM ) V8X - 1500 1 , 500 hp Hyperbar diesel engine and a SESM ESM500 automatic transmission , with five forward and two reverse gears . The official maximum speed by road is 72 km / h and 55 km / h cross country ( speeds in excess of 80 km / h were reported on road ) . The maximum range is given as 550 km , and can be extended to 650 km with removable external tanks . The " hyperbar " system integrates a Turbomeca TM 307B gas turbine in the engine , acting both as a turbocharger and an APU giving auxiliary power to all systems when the main engine is shut down . At a combat weight of just 56 tons , the Leclerc is one of the lightest main battle tanks in the world ; this gives it one of the best power - to - weight ratios among the Western tanks ( 27 hp per tonne ) and makes it one of the fastest MBTs of its generation ( 0 to 32 km / h in 5 seconds ) . The engine exhaust , exiting at the rear left , is cooled to reduce the thermal signature of the tank . Transmission is a hydromechanical type with five forward and two reverse gears . Fuel tanks carry 1 , 300 litres and act as extra protection ; two 200 - litre external tanks can be fitted on the rear of the turret , but have to be jettisoned before entering combat since they limit turret rotation . The gear box is equipped with a hydrokinetic retarder which can slow the Leclerc down at a deceleration rate of 7 m / s² ( 0 . 7 g ) which can be very useful at the last moment before it could be hit . The crew must be strapped in safely by their harnesses to use this . Combat experience . While having no notable experience in true warzone environments , the Leclerc has seen deployment on multiple low - intensity conflicts , including 15 Leclercs stationed in Kosovo in the context of UN peace - keeping operations , where their performance was judged satisfactory by French officials . Currently 13 Leclercs are deployed in the south Lebanon for a peacekeeping mission with the UNIFIL . Variants . series 1 : series 2 : series 3 ( XXI ) :