EuropeFranceModernMain battle tank
AMX Leclerc XLR
Leclerc
Western Europe’s only autoloaded MBT in series service.
Specifications
- Crew
- 3
- Combat weight
- 57 t
- Engine
- 1500 hp
- hp / tonne
- 26.3
- Road speed
- 71 km/h
- Range
- 550 km
- Main gun
- 120 mm CN120-26 Autoloaded
- In service
- 1992–present
SACM V8X Hyperbar, 1,500 hp
Armor: Modular composite; XLR adds kits and a remotely operated 12.7 mm
Secondary: 12.7 mm coaxial (unique among Western MBTs), 7.62 mm AA
Briefing scores
Relative 1–10 for teaching, not a wargame rating.
- Firepower
- 9/10
- Protection
- 8/10
- Mobility
- 9/10
- Awareness
- 9/10
- Logistics
- 6/10
Ammunition natures
OFL 120 F1 APFSDSHEATHE
History
Named for Marshal Leclerc. UAE is the biggest export customer and used it in Yemen. XLR modernization keeps it current until a Franco-German MGCS appears — if it appears.
Doctrine
France kept the three-man autoloader crew the rest of NATO rejected. The Leclerc is lighter than Abrams/Leo 2, faster on the road, and built to deploy to Africa and the Levant as well as Europe. The tank is a professional-crew scalpel, not a mass hull.
Strengths
- Autoloader rate of fire
- Power-to-weight
- 12.7 mm coaxial
Limits
- Autoloader complexity
- Small fleet
- Bustle ammo handling vs isolation debates
Related hulls
17 of 25 in the atlas