BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The defense ministers of Germany and France have reached an agreement in principle on the jointly planned land combat system of the future. The division of labor for the future main battle tank, which will include a whole range of support weapons such as drones, has also been determined. "We have achieved a breakthrough today. It's no exaggeration to describe this as historic for a project like this. We have agreed on the distribution of all tasks for this major project," said SPD politician Boris Pistorius, who appeared before the press in Berlin on Friday with his counterpart Sébastien Lecornu after the negotiations. Lecornu said that the weapon system would be a "generational leap".

MGCS, which will be led by Germany, is the counterpart to the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which will be led by France. The ground combat system will follow on from the Leopard and Leclerc main battle tanks, but will have fundamentally different capabilities, such as linking with drones, artificial intelligence and new types of laser weapons. Industrial distribution disputes had led to delays and tensions between Berlin and Paris. In May 2021, Germany, France and Spain had already reached an "agreement in principle" on the multi-billion euro FCAS air combat system after an industrial policy struggle./cn/DP/mis