“Unlocking Collaboration: The MGCS Project Company Shareholder Pact”
KNDS Deutschland, KNDS France, Rheinmetall Landsysteme, and Thales formalized the articles of association for MGCS Project Company GmbH in Cologne on Thursday, January 23, 2025, in Paris, attended by French Defence Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, and German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius.
MGCS, representing the Main Ground Combat System, is a collaborative German-French armament initiative aimed at substituting the Leopard 2 and Leclerc main battle tanks with a versatile combat system by 2040.
The execution of the shareholder agreement signifies a pivotal advancement towards the establishment of the MGCS Project Company. Following the negotiation of a contract with the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support (BAAINBw), representing the two nations via a German-French Combined Project Team (CPT), this project company will assume the role of the industrial prime contractor for the next phase of the MGCS initiative. Specifically, it will integrate the concept and the primary technological foundations of the system. Ownership will be shared equally among the parties at 25% each, with a national distribution of 50% for Germany and 50% for France, headquartered in Cologne, Germany.
The industrial collaborators in the MGCS initiative express their satisfaction with this agreement, which follows the encouragement provided by the French and German governments in the spring of 2024 with the signing of a Letter Of Intent (LOI).
