The European Commission launched Project MARTE (an acronym for Main ARmoured Tank of Europe) on 1 July 2025 with a grant of approximately EUR 20 million from the European Defence Fund (EDF).
The project, which is described as “a cutting-edge and highly promising initiative designed to strengthen Europe’s technological autonomy by addressing the crucial asset of a main battle tank (MBT) system”, is co-ordinated and led by MARTE ARGE GbR: a joint venture company between KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall Landsysteme. MARTE ARGE is supported by consulting company Erdyn and a core team of five top-tier defence companies: KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall Landsysteme from Germany, Italy’s Leonardo, Indra Sistemas from Spain and Saab from Sweden.
Building on their pertinent expertise in the field of MBTs, each of them manages one of the five technical Work Packages in which the project’s scope has been clustered – with all further companies contributing with their relevant technical knowledge.
The project brings together complementary industrial partners from leading, large entities as well as mid-sized companies, research institutions and innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“MARTE aims to conduct study and design activities to create a future MBT system that adequately meets current and future threats and the harmonised needs of the European Member States involved,” the consortium stated in a press release. “By integrating innovative and disruptive technologies a resilient defence system is to be designed, tailored to the evolving challenges of modern warfare and considering lessons learned from current conflicts.
“To achieve this ambitious goal a consortium composed of 51 legal entities from 12 European countries (11 EU member states plus Norway) has agreed to contribute their respective expertise and gained experiences in the best possible way. MARTE is fostering technological innovation and leveraging cross-border collaboration,” the consortium added.
In addition to the funding granted by the European Commission, the MARTE consortium receives strong support from 11 European ministries of defence (MoDs) as potential future customers. These are led by the German MoD an include the defence ministries of Belgium, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Sweden.
The MARTE project was officially initiated on 1 December 2024 and had a kick-off meeting in Stockholm on 5/6 December 2024.
Interestingly, Project Marte does not involve France, which is partnered with Germany via KNDS on the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) programme: a project launched by Germany and France in 2017 to replace their respective Leopard 2 and Leclerc MBT fleets.
