Skip to main content

The Tanks of European Rearmament

From the series War industry and European defence

European arms industry sales amounted to €183.4 billion in 2024, with a 13.8% annual increase. This information comes from the latest report of ASD (Aerospace, Security, and Defence), the sector's industrial association, which also includes the United Kingdom, Norway, and Turkey. The report adds that the land defence sector earned €65.3 billion, with a 14.3% annual increase.

The world's top 100 armaments groups listed in the chart drawn up by SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) registered a 5.9% increase in revenues in 2024, reaching a record figure of $679 billion, but the 26 European groups among them had double that rate of growth, amounting to 13%. SIPRI points out that Rheinmetall, with a 47% increase in turnover, and KNDS, with a more than 40% increase in orders, are among the companies with the most rapid growth.

This is interesting because KNDS and Rheinmetall are the two main continental European companies that produce battle tanks, the Leopard 2 and the Panther KF-51. They are also partners in the MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) programme which is developing the future Franco-German tank. At the presentation of the new Leopard 2A8 in the KNDS factory in Munich, the German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said: The technology coming from these production chains is not outdated. On the contrary, we know that modern wars will not just be drone wars [Les Echos, November 19th].

The Ukrainian experience

Looking at the war in Ukraine, one might initially find this hard to believe. In this conflict, the Russian army is said to have lost 4,100 tanks and the Ukrainian army 1,250, i.e., an average of four per day, many in the initial period. A study of the battle tank by the French think tank IFRI ["Char de combat: obsolescence ou renaissance?", November 2025] seeks to understand and describe these figures in detail.

Its starting point is that, in 2022, the Russian armed forces thought that the so-called special military operation would be a rapid campaign that would meet with little resistance. Consequently, the columns of tanks and armoured vehicles were short on logistics – including fuel, ammunition, spare parts, and electronic countermeasures – and lacked adequate infantry support to protect the advancing columns.

As a result, the tanks were spotted by drones and heavily bombed by artillery and antitank missiles. In many cases, they were abandoned by their crews because of failures, malfunctions, or breakdowns. In some instances, tanks were captured, but usually they were destroyed by suicide drones. Vehicles such as heavy tanks have tremendous advantages over uneven terrain, often full of holes and ditches, because of the extensive support base provided by their tracks. But if one of these breaks, for example due to a mine, it cannot be put right without adequate repair logistics. Once the initial tactical phase was over, the nature of the war changed.

The tactical situation in Ukraine, centred on positional warfare made transparent by the use of drones – says the IFRI study – should not be the only point of reference on the use of armoured vehicles. Consequently, after three decades of contraction of the tank fleets in service, the European armies are carrying out a huge reinvestment in tanks, which remain an indispensable element of inter-arms combat.

New generation of tanks

These tanks will need to have some specific characteristics, which the arms industry is working on.

For one thing, they will have to be able to operate in collaboration with unmanned ground vehicles, the so-called UGVs, i.e., systems able to provide air cover, transport ammunition, or perform engineering functions.

The passive protection functions of the new tanks will have to be strengthened, with extensive use of special steels, tungsten, composites, and ceramics, with due regard to the relative increase in weight. A chart by Rheinmetall highlights the weight of the various elements of a big tank: 23% for the running gear, 15% for weapons, fire control, and ammunition, 13% for the propulsion system, and a good 49% for the hull and its armour. As a result, greater importance will have to be attached to the active protection of the tanks. The Leopard 2A8s will be provided with a German variation of the Israeli Trophy system, which spots an incoming threat via radar and seeks to counter it using small munitions. Another active protection is the use of jamming systems which disorient the enemy's laser-guided munitions, such as the second-generation MUSS developed by Hensoldt in which Leonardo is a shareholder. There is also the use of loitering munitions, suicide drones launched from the tank, which fly near it for an extended period with the aim of spotting and destroying eventual enemies.

The 130 mm gun developed for the Panther KF-51 and for the new generation of the Leopard, is able to hit a target as small as an A4 sheet of paper located 1,000 metres away, with four shots in succession. The practical military value of this precision is debatable, but it can certainly be used to advertise the technological prowess of the vehicles.

German success

The small box showing the European orders of new tanks reveals the weight of German industry in the sector. Even though Europe has produced fourteen different battle-tank models in the post-war period, the Leopard has had a substantial share of the market and now accounts for 50% of the continental armies' available tank fleet. In the last decade, the production of the English Challenger tanks and of the French Leclerc and the Italian Ariete has halted, while the German KMW (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann), which became KNDS in 2015 after its merger with the French Nexter, has continued the production of the Leopard, using incremental improvements and upgrades which have led to eight different versions. It now plans to quadruple its production rate by 2028.

European rearmament incentivises combinations between industries in the sector and brings about initial steps towards a level of industrial concentration potentially favourable to the interests of continental imperialism; at the same time, it can be expected to reignite rivalries in the race for contracts worth billions. A Leopard 2A8 can cost €25 million, which is the cost of about 30 Ferraris.

KNDS and Rheinmetall are both competitors and collaborators. The barrel of all the Leopard 2 versions is produced by Rheinmetall, which in turn equips its Panther KF-51 with a chassis identical to that of the Leopard 2; in addition, they both have the same MTU turbodiesel engine and the same running gear (suspensions, wheels, and tracks). These parts are also expected to be used in the Italian tanks to be produced by a joint venture between Rheinmetall and Leonardo. According to the IFRI study, KNDS could design a transitional tank combining the Leopard chassis with a Leclerc modified turret. London is going to restructure 148 tanks that will become the Challenger 3, with a turret produced by Rheinmetall.

Quarrels over the main programmes

Rheinmetall has manoeuvred skilfully, writes Le Figaro [October 10th], to enter the MGCS programme for the new generation Franco-German tank, which should be ready by the end of the next decade. Rheinmetall has also declared itself ready to replace the Bode-Wegmann family, which currently owns 50% of KNDS's share capital – the French State owning the other half – a stake the family wishes to dispose of on the occasion of the opening of the holding company's capital, potentially via a stock market listing.

If this were to happen, the French role in KNDS would be painted into a corner. Paris is worried about this, at the very moment when tension is rising around the FCAS, the Future Combat Air System, the second major Franco-German military programme.

Finally, Le Figaro notes that the American funds BlackRock and banks such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and the Bank of America have a stake in Rheinmetall's capital. However, it is worth recalling that the Paris daily is owned by the Dassault family whose company produces the Rafale fighter plane – a group determined to defend its pre-eminent role in the conception of the next, sixth-generation fighter plane.

Rheinmetall aims to reach a €30-billion turnover by 2030. According to the assessment of its shareholder Morgan Stanley, its major trump card is that it is the main European producer of ammunition, which in 2024 gave it a 28.4% profit margin, as against 11.2% on armoured vehicles, 12.6% on electronic solutions, and 4.2% on civilian car parts. The circle closes: profits from ammunition are being used to develop modern tanks.

Lotta Comunista, December 2025

Labels:

Popular posts in the last week

Reckless Bets on Migrants in California

Internationalism No. 78-79, August-September 2025 Page 11 From the series Chronicles of the new American nationalism The tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on allies, partners and opponents of the United States have opened a phase of negotiations with the affected countries and caused reactions from some key States. The legal opposition from almost all areas of the US poses a test: whether States, courts, and Congress can influence trade policy and constrain the expansion of executive powers. Amid conflicting rulings, the tariffs have been reinstated – an outcome that, The New York Times remarks, has “left Washington, Wall Street, and much of the world trying to discern the future of US trade policy”. California’s dispute with the federal government has expanded to immigration policy and the domestic use of military force. The political, economic, and power struggles overlap with the electoral dimension. The establishment remains critical of or ...
Read more

The EU Commission Plans for Rearmament and a Clean Industrial Deal

Internationalism No. 71, January 2025 Page 2 From the series European news Following the European elections which took place on June 6th - 9th, the leaders of the Member States met on June 27th at the European Council. Ursula von der Leyen was nominated as president of the next European Commission, after she was chosen as the European People’s Party’s (EPP) Spitzenkandidat (“leading candidate”). The agreement also included the election of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa as president of the European Council, and the appointment of former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Subsequently, on July 18th, Parliament elected von der Leyen as president of the Commission by an absolute majority, with 401 votes out of 719 MEPs. On September 17th, von der Leyen presented her team of commissioners to the European Parliament and, two days later, the Council adopted this list of...
Read more

Show Warfare?

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 16 After show politics and show diplomacy , have we sunk to the obscenity of show warfare ? On the surface, this is true. The Pentagon’s video game-style communications, where airstrikes, missile launches, and deadly explosions are set to music for social media clips, certainly suggest so. It matters little that a hundred schoolgirls were also blown to bits as artificial intelligence took centre stage on the battlefield. In reality, war propaganda has always showcased destruction and mocked the enemy; today in Washington, in the era of the high-tech groups of television and social media democracy , the only thing that has changed is the style and the means used to inflame fanaticisms and stuff people’s brains. In Tehran, dominated by a parasitic bourgeoisie that feeds on oil revenues and is intertwined with the militias and hierarchies of t...
Read more

THE UNITARY IMPERIALISM ISSUE

Chapter Six   In 1951 Europe, and the world, was shrouded in mist. The ‘Cold War’ ideology ruled, and the war in Korea made a world conflict between the USA and the USSR seem a real possibility. In France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, the talk was of rearmament. Europe, at that time urged by the USA, was planning the EDC (European Defence Community) to keep step with German rearmament. The concept of a ‘ unitary imperialism ’ was the strategic choice that helped the small GAAP group remain politically independent. But translating this into an ‘Internationalist Third Front’ slogan was unfortunate. It facilitated a link with French libertarian communists, but could also cause confusion with its suggestion of a ‘Third Force’ between the USA and the USSR, which in Europe was supported by important bourgeois currents. Although opposition to unitary imperialism consolidated the internationalist struggle, the theory required to be developed and per...
Read more

LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM: A DIFFERENT KIND OF COMMUNISM

Chapter Three LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM: A DIFFERENT KIND OF COMMUNISM   An examination of the debate within the groups that were to create GAAP (Anarchist Groups of Proletarian Action) gives a vivid picture of the problems that between 1948 and 1951 had to be slowly and painfully faced. Three major confrontations, progressively more serious, took place between Cervetto and Masini in the autumn of 1949 and again in the spring and autumn of 1950. As preparations were being made for the National Conference at Pontedecimo – from which GAAP would be born – debate on the nature of the organisation and on theories of the State and imperialism began to define the characteristics of the new political group, but also revealed the differences. The first step had been to look for ‘a different kind’ of communism in anarchism. Along this road Cervetto , with an ever-surer grasp, would raise the issue that had been first posed by Marx and Lenin : our militant...
Read more

Marx’s Political Method

Internationalism No. 85, March 2026 Special Issue, Page II From the series Principles of Marxism The Grundrisse require a sustained effort of attention from the reader. Marx uses scientific abstractions and conceptual connections as analytical tools. In the Grundrisse , we shall follow the guiding thread of Marx’s method. Some critics, including those within the Marxist camp, see traces of Hegelian thought in Marx’s procedures in this work. Marx and Engels responded to these jibes, clarifying their relationship with Hegel. In the Afterword to the second edition of Capital , Marx wrote: My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, the [...] process of thinking, which, under the name of ‘the Idea’, he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world [...]. With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and transl...
Read more

Forward Deterrence for European Imperialism

Internationalism No. 86, April 2026 Page 3 From the series European news The next half-century will be the age of nuclear weapons . This was the grim prediction with which Emmanuel Macron concluded his speech on nuclear deterrence, delivered on March 2 nd at the Île Longue submarine base. Standing before Le Téméraire , the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine that carries a strike force equivalent to the sum of all the bombs dropped on Europe during the Second World War , the president announced a significant evolution in French nuclear doctrine. The emergence of new threats and the realignment of American priorities make it necessary, according to Macron, not only to strengthen deterrence by increasing the number of nuclear warheads, but also to rethink the deterrence strategy deep inside the European continent . His proposal is the gradual implementation o...
Read more

Lotta Comunista: The Origins 1943-1952

Guido La Barbera Contents 9. Preface to the English Edition 13. Preface 19. Useful dates 21. Chapter One «ONE OUGHT TO KNOW WITH WHOM ONE IS DEALING» 25. The balance-of-power theory 27. Theory and the ‘strategy-party’ 29. Chapter Two THE FOUNDRY AND THE PARTISAN STRUGGLE 31. The Savona group 39. Passion disciplined by reason 40. Never again a tool in the hands of others 41. The Genoa group 46. The Sestri Ponente group 48. The groups in Rome and Tuscany 52. The strength of GAAP: ‘only a handful’ 55. Chapter Three LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM: A DIFFERENT KIND OF COMMUNISM 58. Reckoning with Bordiga...
Read more

The National Gamble of Poland

Internationalism No. 33, November 2021 Page 3 From the series European News In a lawsuit brought by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the Constitutional Tribunal, which is composed of judges chosen by the government, ruled that fundamental parts of the EU Treaty are incompatible with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. This ruling thus denies the primacy of European law over national law, undermining both the political assumption of continental integration and the supranational character of the EU . Vectors of Polish history We can shed light on this event if we consider the four field vectors that cross Poland: its traditional ethnic-religious nationalism, its marked Atlantic tropism, the objective attraction exerted by the European force field, and the looming threat of Russia. The general picture is global collisions: China’s irruption and the crisis in the world order have put pressure on Warsaw to define its st...
Read more

THE FOUNDRY AND THE PARTISAN STRUGGLE

Chapter Two   What forces were there for starting again, at the end of the 1940s? At the beginning of that road, you could count the core groups on the fingers of one hand: Genoa, its Sestri Ponente district, Savona, Rome. Of course, there were also Turin, Vicenza, Bologna, Milan, Bolzano, Trieste, Livorno, and a few sympathisers down South, but that was all it amounted to. Although there were periodic attempts at ‘linking up’ along the whole length of the peninsula, apart from the three Ligurian groups and the Tuscany-Lazio one, there wasn’t much more than a network of individual sympathisers. The Savona group Arrigo Cervetto , founder of Lotta Comunista and its undisputed leader until his death in 1995, was born in Buenos Aires in 1927, to a family who had emigrated from Savona. Returning to Liguria, he started work when still a boy, and in 1943 was taken on as an apprentice at the Ilva steel-making plant in Savona. The party ar...
Read more