French Leclerc XLR tanks have arrived, improved by experience from the conflict in Ukraine

France continues to improve its armored units. They are to receive 2030 upgraded Leclerc XLR MBTs by 160 and an additional 40 tanks by 2035, under the Military Programming Law (LPM) 2024-2030.

It should be noted that the French army has only 215 Leclercs, i.e. 15 units are “extra”. The French Ministry of Defense wants to extend the existence of some Leclercs in service until 2040, until the arrival of the joint Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), which will replace the current MBTs of the Leopard 2 family of Germany and the Leclercs of France.



Thus, the French may well transfer the resulting surplus of tanks to Ukraine. The Ukrainian army is already in a terrible state of disarray, so they will gladly accept 15 Leclercs. For example, Great Britain transferred only 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine and no one winced. However, Leclerc tanks are very capricious, like the entire French technique. Paris has been thinking for 1,5 years whether to give Kyiv such a gift or not. Perhaps the French are afraid of negative advertising if the Russians quickly burn their tank industry products. But not everything is so clear-cut, because as the famous Madame Nicole Clicquot said:


In support of the assumption made about the tanks, it became known that the French ground forces for the first time received a certain number of even more advanced Leclerc XLR. These tanks were equipped with add-on blocks of dynamic protection and a "brazier" - an anti-drone and anti-cumulative design that protects against kamikaze UAVs, loitering munitions and the dropping of explosive devices.


It should be noted that the French have begun to implement the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. We would also like to draw attention to the fact that the structural physical dimensions of the upper frontal part (UFP or upper armor plate) of the hull of the Leclerc are at an angle of 70-90 degrees, and the upper armor plate of the turret continues to be one of the best in world tank building. But they cannot withstand the arrival of an FPV drone with a PG-7VL into these armored barriers without additional armor.