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France cosies up to the UAE by Eva Thiébaud
The Leclerc tank is central to the history of the special relationship between France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This emblematic piece of French military hardware has been both praised for its advanced technology and criticised for its high cost and unsuitability for modern warfare.
During the cold war, France planned to build 1,400 high-tech tanks to repel a possible Soviet attack. The state-owned company that made the French army’s land-based weapons, the Groupement Industriel des Armements Terrestres (GIAT), designed a fast tank that could fire its main gun while travelling at top speed. But unit costs rocketed and, after the breakup of the USSR in December 1991, France’s needs were reassessed at only 406 tanks and production plans were scaled back.