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French Army Trials Anti-Drone “Cage Kit” for Leclerc Tanks After Ukraine Shows the Way
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
France has begun field-testing new anti-drone and anti-mine protection for its Leclerc XLR main battle tanks, drawing heavily on lessons from Ukraine’s front lines, where cheap FPV drones and improvised explosives have forced rapid adaptations across NATO, Army Recognition reported on November 18.
The experimental configuration appeared during joint Franco-Swiss live-fire drills in Hinterrhein, where the French Army’s 5th Dragoon Regiment trained alongside Switzerland’s 17th Mechanized Battalion.
The rare public sighting showed a Leclerc XLR equipped with a cope-cage-style overhead screen designed to disrupt suicide drone attacks—a defensive approach widely adopted by Ukrainian units to survive Russia’s drone onslaught. The tank also carried modular anti-mine and anti-RPG panels that can be swapped in or removed depending on the mission.
The live-fire trials, conducted in challenging alpine terrain and paired with Swiss Leopard 2s, offered European commanders an opportunity to evaluate how quickly modern armor can be adapted to the drone-dense environment that has defined Ukraine’s battlefield since 2022.
French officials said the drills involved roughly 300 rounds of kinetic fire and were aimed at validating modular kits that could be rapidly added to front-line vehicles.
The Leclerc XLR—France’s most advanced tank variant—already features upgraded sensors, a modern fire-control suite, and digital networking.
But the Hinterrhein configuration focused on rapidly deployable mechanical defenses rather than high-end electronic counter-UAS tools, a pragmatic choice that echoes Ukrainian practice: simple cage screens, reinforced plates, and mission-specific add-ons that can be mounted quickly to counter FPV threats.
European militaries have been studying Ukraine’s improvised armor solutions closely as they design their own “drone wall” strategies. The spread of low-cost attack drones, coupled with increasing mine use along the eastern front, has accelerated Western interest in modular protection kits that can be fielded without extensive redesigns.
Earlier, China filed a patent for modular protective armor on infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) that closely resemble Ukrainian battlefield solutions.
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