HK416 modular assault rifle / carbine / upper receiver assembly (Germany)

[Nilgiri]

I'll greatly help if that's within my knowledge! Especially if you want to know more about the VBL,which was somewhat my working office and second wife.

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It all makes sense why you and Tay got along really well heh.

 

[Vergennes]

It all makes sense why you and Tay got along really well heh.

Tay's working place was much more fascinating,LOL! (VAB Mephisto)

 

[Nilgiri]

Tay's working place was much more fascinating,LOL! (VAB Mephisto)

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Actually I was just (few days ago) interacting in another forum where it was being brought up (by a Swedish reserve guy who has good contacts) that Sweden is potentially interested in the LeClerc tank now (to add to their existing strv. leo's). The auto loader is a key thing it seems because they are somewhat shortstaffed...and to quote him: smaller profile and lighter so able to cross more bridges and the word seems to be that deliveries could be made at a speedier pace. Somewhat younger tankers are leaning more towards the Leclerc and the older officers are more sceptical.

@A.P. Richelieu @waz @Zarvan @Signalian

The conversation proceeded to then be about the LeClerc in general...and one wise guy was like "what was the last good tank the French ever made?"...and one (funny) guy follows with "its a been a while, maybe a century" , and posts a renault FT

...and senior forum guy eventually cuts that banter with "actually French have made, SOMUA, AMX-13, AMX-30 and some very decent armored cars"...and I proceeded to give a few tidbits of AMX-13 performance that @hellfire @Joe Shearer might know about too.

Swedish guy btw now is saying French have about 200 or so leclercs in storage that could be potentially leased if Sweden chooses it (while waiting for new builds).

 

[Vergennes]

Actually I was just (few days ago) interacting in another forum where it was being brought up (by a Swedish reserve guy who has good contacts) that Sweden is potentially interested in the LeClerc tank now (to add to their existing strv. leo's). The auto loader is a key thing it seems because they are somewhat shortstaffed...and to quote him: smaller profile and lighter so able to cross more bridges and the word seems to be that deliveries could be made at a speedier pace. Somewhat younger tankers are leaning more towards the Leclerc and the older officers are more sceptical.

@A.P. Richelieu @waz @Zarvan @Signalian

The conversation proceeded to then be about the LeClerc in general...and one wise guy was like "what was the last good tank the French ever made?"...and one (funny) guy follows with "its a been a while, maybe a century" , and posts a renault FT

...and senior forum guy eventually cuts that banter with "actually French have made, SOMUA, AMX-13, AMX-30 and some very decent armored cars"...and I proceeded to give a few tidbits of AMX-13 performance that @hellfire @Joe Shearer might know about too.

Swedish guy btw now is saying French have about 200 or so leclercs in storage that could be potentially leased if Sweden chooses it (while waiting for new builds).

Highly doubt Sweden might acquire the Leclerc and it would not be profitable to re-open the production line for a hundred tanks or so. (If not less)

More than 200 Leclercs are in storage in France,so they might be acquired from that stock. There was a time when Saudi Arabia was interested in the Leclerc because of its performances in Yemen and that the line could be re-opened. But then again we talked about several hundreds units.

It was also said it could be re-opened if France offered the Leclerc in the Indian tender to replace its ageing T72 fleet.

 

[Nilgiri]

Highly doubt Sweden might acquire the Leclerc and it would not be profitable to re-open the production line for a hundred tanks or so. (If not less)

More than 200 Leclercs are in storage in France,so they might be acquired from that stock. There was a time when Saudi Arabia was interested in the Leclerc because of its performances in Yemen and that the line could be re-opened. But then again we talked about several hundreds units.

It was also said it could be re-opened if France offered the Leclerc in the Indian tender to replace its ageing T72 fleet.

Let me ask what he thinks the requirement is numbers wise...I'll get back to you later.

 

[Nilgiri]

@Vergennes ...quoting his reply:

Not with absolute certainty but lets do some speculation here.

Right now there’s 11 tank companies with 11 tanks in each in service for a total of 121.

If we presume that there’s a desire to make the (soon to be) three mechanized brigades equal to one another and with three equal combined arms battallions and to expand the Gotland battlegroup to a full battllion we’re short 7 companies.

There is also a desire (it seems) to again expand the companies to 14 tanks each as they were for a few years, the reduction to 11 tanks each was due to not enough tanks to generate enough companies otherwise.

So 11*7=77 and if we go to 14 tanks per company that’s another 3*18=54 for a total of 131 and that’s without any further expansion of the army which is likely to come.

Is it enough to open up the production line? I don’t know, I guess that’d be up to Nexter.

I should also note that there’s not unlikely to be a requirement for more tank based armored recovery, combat engineering and bridge laying vehicles as well.