The Chilean Army doubts the success of modernizing the Leopard tank

The Proaco project is the strategic program of the Chilean Army that aims to recover the capacities of its armored material affected by technical and logistical obsolescence.

In 2020, the Factories and Maestranzas of the Army (Famae) directly received the contract to formulate and execute this project structured in two phases.

The first corresponds to the development of a first unit that, once accepted, would be passed, in a different contract, to the second stage, which corresponds to the gradual implementation by annual payments in all the intervened fleets.

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The material to be modernized is the fire control system (SCF) of the Leopard 2 A4 tank, the observation and aiming system of the Marder 1 A3 armored car, the internal communications of the entire Chilean armored fleet, and the control system of fire (SCF) of the M109 self-propelled howitzer.

More than two years after the start of the project, Famae has only made progress in the first units for the observation and aiming of the Marder 1 A3 armored car and in internal communications, with contracts to OIP Land Systems (Belgium) and Aselsan (Turkey), respectively, whose progress is still very slow and without concrete results to date for a contract signed a year ago.

While the solution for the SCF of the M109 material is under development through the subsidiary of Famae, Servicios y Soluciones Tecnológicas S.A. (S2T), rejecting the initial option with the Chilean company Desarrollos de Automatización (Desa).

DELAY IN THE MODERNIZATION OF THE SCF OF THE LEOPARD 2 A4

However, the most important subproject of Proaco and that corresponds to the renewal of the SCF of the Leopard 2 A4 tank is still in total uncertainty at its start.

The bidding process carried out by Famae is entangled by challenges made to the Comptroller General of the Republic by the Israeli company Elbit Systems, based on its exclusion from the new ongoing process.

Let us remember that initially, Famae, in 2021, had accepted Elbit’s offer.

But it was the Ministry of National Defense who objected to the selected solution for the Army since it could be verified that the technical solution of the Israeli firm was very similar to the modernization under development for Argentina in the modernization of its TAM tanks, which should have been an exclusive condition according to the Chilean Ministry of Defense and which was not considered at the time by Famae.

According to internal sources at Famae, the process has had monthly postponements since February 28 of this year, pending a response from the Comptroller General regarding the challenges made by Elbit.

Sources of interest from the Chilean Army estimate that it is only a self-imposed condition by the management of Famae to avoid future administrative responsibilities that the Comptroller General could observe by Elbit’s claim, which would show once again that the bidding processes carried out in the Proaco project have lacked technical and administrative rigor, otherwise, it could be understood that Famae would not be in the current scenario of criticism.

All this also bogs down the progress of the first unit contracts for OIP Land Systems and Aselsan, since their solutions must necessarily be compatible with the new SCF of the Leopard 2 A4 tank.

For OIP LS there must be functionality between the two in the simulators and for Aselsan, the need to apply the compatibility and electromagnetic interference tests, so that they are functional with each other.

It is also added that what was contracted to OIP LS and Aselsan, despite being defined as a “first unit” of the solution, is being executed in practice as “prototypes” and not existing solutions in operation, which has led to longer times than expected contractually agreed and strangely under the consent of Famae since for obviousness the tests, corrections and validations must be executed.

While in the case of the solution of the SCF of the Leopard 2 A4 tank, an attempt is made to avoid this error, and in the new technical bases, they are much more specific when requiring that the offer presented by the interested companies be a solution that currently exists in operation in said material.

The delay in decision-making and avoidable errors in Famae’s internal processes have caused delays that have a transversal effect on the entire project. Also, this delay could be collaterally affecting the project’s budget since, due to the war in Ukraine, costs and logistical times have increased in the defense sector.

Given the facts, we can objectively conclude that Famae has been inefficient in timely specifying its contractual commitment with the Chilean Army, which has altered the schedule for this weapon.

On the other hand, and according to internal Army sources, the success of the Proaco project as Famae is developing it is viewed with great skepticism and that, without radical changes in its management, an unsatisfactory result is in sight, which would be very unfortunate when considering the immense amount of resources provided for this strategic project of the branch of the Chilean land force.

COMPLEX TASK FOR THE IDIC

The Army Research and Control Institute (IDIC), as the technical receiving body for everything that the Chilean Army acquires for itself, already visualizes the complexities indicated in the development of this first phase.

and specifically regarding the functional interaction between the different types of material intervened, its main objective being to ensure the Army that what has been put into operation in Proaco has the desired systemic functionality, a complex task since it must verify its compliance with a Famae that to date has not been up to the task desired.

The preceding deepens the uncertainty of Famae’s actions due to the fact that there are currently reasonable doubts of the Army regarding the effectiveness in executing its current maintenance contracts.

The modality started more than a decade ago is quite degraded in its management, even though there has been a strong investment of resources during the period and that, added to a special maintenance program type F6 with additional resources to the annual ones, have not given the expected results in terms of material availability battleship.

Finally, the defense sector has also criticized the passivity that the Chilean Army has had by not making use of the contractual conditions with Famae to demand what is convenient or in making the decision to use its own procurement agencies and what is desired progress according to schedule.

With information from Infodefensa