Robert Beckhusen
Security, center East
One well Tank: Why France's Leclerc Is One of the Best above the Planet
There is a saying at the Pentagon that the United Arab Emirates is "Little Sparta," a phrase repeated by outgoing defense secretary James Mattis. The controversy is that Emirati army are experienced and battle-tested from the campaign at Yemen, and the oil-rich speak has spent its riches above some of the most advanced military hardware at the world.
At the forefront is the UAE's armored corps of French-made Leclerc tanks, an innovative machinery which because the past 26 years eat been a more commonplace scene at ridicule campaign games, peacekeeping missions and France's Bastille engagement parade than above the battlefield. besides the UAE first tested the Leclerc's mettle at Yemen -- and is adding upgrades to compose its armor harder to crack.
France developed the 60-ton Leclerc to substitute the 1960s-vintage -- and lightly-armored -- AMX-30 to possess speed with Soviet tank developments. Broadly comparable to other Western main campaign tanks of its era and featuring a 120-millimeter GIAT cannon, the Leclerc dispenses with a human ammunition loader because an autoloading system bringing the crew size down to three, a characteristic commonplace to Russian tanks more than Western ones. This autoloader served because an inspiration because a comparable machinery above South Korea's K1 main campaign tank.
The Leclerc's armor is also a mingle of armor types -- reactive, combination and steel -- because improve refuge versus a wider array of penetrating anti-tank shells and guided missiles. A .50-caliber machinery cannon embedded at the turret and a top-mounted 7.62-millimeter machinery cannon nearly out the armament.
Whether the Leclerc -- without upgrades -- is improve protected than America's match M1A1 Abrams is debatable. The Abrams is responsible improve armored at the front besides weaker above the sides. However, the Leclerc is less fuel thirsty -- relative because a tank -- boosting its unrefueled mountain to an impressive 340 miles above the Abrams' 265 miles, and the Leclerc accelerates faster owing to its lighter weight and hydropneumatic suspension, comparable an armored Citroën.
Acceleration is a keen favour at "shoot-and-scoot" warfare, a tactic by which tanks pop out from backward cover to free a nearly ago reversing to safety. This lighter logistical footprint and greater nimbleness above the battlefield reflects French doctrine of roughing it and making perform with less -- compensating with a greater feeling of élan or war enthusiasm and initiative. "The French pick mobility above protection, a option that reflects their cultural and doctrinal emphasis above maneuver," analyst Michael Shurkin wrote at a 2014 learn of the French military because the RAND Corporation.
The Leclerc entered French service at 1993. The UAE is the unique other speak which has them, buying 388 Leclercs plus 36 armored recovery backward vehicles to furnish its own forces. The UAE buy helped lower the fare of production. The French army's Leclercs eat deployed at peacekeeping operations at Lebanon and Kosovo -- besides eat otherwise stayed lay at France.
The UAE has modified its Leclercs at a unique way. UAE Leclercs eat been spotted wrapped with CLARA add-on armor packages designed by Germany's Dynamit Nobel Defense. CLARA is a organize of explosive reactor armor that uses a combination of fibre plates that explode outside when impacted by a projectile, damaging the projectile and reducing its penetrating power. However, unlike customary steel reactive armor plates, the fibres are potentially less fatal to infantry who can be standing nearby. Imagery of UAE tanks with CLARA plates shows bulky armor covering most of the turret's side and chassis.
The UAE also has Leclercs with AZUR up-armor kits spotted at war at Yemen, where UAE base army eat fought heavily because divide of a Saudi-led coalition warring with Houthi tribes aligned with Iran. These French-made armor kits also extend the length of the tank's sides with extra cord grating at the rear to detonate rocket-propelled grenades away from the engine.
It is difficult to analyze the Leclerc's war regulation at Yemen -- though they appear to eat performed improve than Saudi Abrams tanks without up-armor kits. However, French media reported the loss of a Leclerc driver to an anti-tank guided missile at September 2015 during fighting shut Marib, more than 70 miles east of the capital, Sana'a.
The Leclerc has performed vigorous -- specially at condition of leaving a few logistical footprint -- according to one learn by the French club because International Relations, though the club notorious the Leclercs experienced problems with accumulated sand and transparent at the engines. Houthi army eat also systematically targeted the Leclerc's exterior optics with rifle fire. Lastly, few were damaged by anti-tank mines. The club also recommended bolstering early-warning refuge systems to disrupt anti-tank weapons.
The good information because the Leclerc is that adding these improvements are above the agenda. First, France intends to upgrade its Leclercs because divide of a plot to raise defense spending to two percent of GDP by 2025. This new Leclerc will be renamed the Leclerc Scorpion XLR and characteristic a 7.62-millimeter (NATO) distant weapons turret, and a new armor pack including era blocks and wrap-around grating above the rear and sides.
Equally significant are a counter-IED radio frequency jamming device, new digital data systems because the commander and gunner, and a laser warning system called Antares to find incoming anti-tank guided missiles. Once Antares detects a missile, two dozen launch tubes affixed to the tank launch canisters, creating a wall of smoke to disrupt the projectile's guidance mechanism.
The UAE sits astride a tense region. Iran is less than 100 miles away along the Persian Gulf, and the campaign at Yemen is one of the world's deadliest energetic conflicts. Armored army are no just adept at abandon warfare, besides insurance policies because future wars. The UAE has adapted futuristic technique because its Leclercs that other countries -- at the belt and help at Europe -- will study.
Robert Beckhusen is a military technique correspondent and previously served because managing editor because campaign Is Boring.
Image: creative Commons.
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