Fellow Tankers,
After extensive testing and research, an important discrepancy was confirmed in the Leclerc’s 120mm CN120-26 main gun accuracy that impacts its already all relative viability.
With the Leclerc MSC coming next update, it would be the perfect opportunity to get this issue fixed.
I’ll try to keep this strictly fact-driven using verifiable data and invite scrutiny of the full bug report: Community Bug Reporting System
Multiple documents (4 of them, all referenced in the bug report) mandates ≤0.1 mils spread for the CN120-26.
Spoiler
Of these sources :
- Source [1] Un siècle d’aventure humaine et industrielle (Paris: Société Anonyme de Télécommunications, 2008) is a primary source ;
- Source [2] Stéphane Ferrard and Gérard Turbé, The Leclerc System (Saint-Germain-du-Puy: l’Imprimerie Tardy Quercy S.A, 1992), is a secondary source. S. Ferrard is however somewhat renown when it comes to French weapon and armour;
- Source [3] Pierre Chiquet, La Gabegie (Paris: Éditions Albin Michel, 1997) is a primary source. P. Chiquet was president of Giat Industries from 1990 to 1995 and was thus primarily involved in the Leclerc programme;
- Source [4] Marc Chassillan, Char Leclerc, de la Guerre froide aux conflits de demain (Paris: Sophia Éditions, 2024) is a secondary source. It is however a very authoritative one since it was written by M. Chassillan who is renown for his expertise on Leclerc.
In-game though, rigorous testing (methodology detailed in report) shows an average 0.48 mils spread, a 4.8x deviation from the historical 0.1 mils.
Actually, since we are talking about spread, and thus area, the difference is much more than that.
→ 0.1 mils: 0.126 m² at 2000m
→ 0.48 mils: 2.89 m² at 2000m
We end up with an average spread in the form of a 2,89 m² circle instead of a 0,126 m² circle. 0,126 / 2,89 = 23,04.
It means Leclercs have a whopping 23,04x times worse accuracy than they should.
Here is a visual representation of the issue, the red circle being the current spread and the blue circle being the historically accurate spread:
At 1,500m, this reduces hit probability against a 1.35m target (L.3-33) from ~92% (expected) to ~61% (tested). We can see that means sometimes completely missing your target as shown in the screenshot below.
The Leclerc’s design philosophy hinges on precision engagement. With much weaker armour than other MBTs such as Leopard 2s, Abrams or T-80s and the OFL 120 F1 round (lowest pen at top tier), accuracy isn’t a luxury but rather a survival requirement for long range engagement.
At 11.7+ BR, where adversaries have enough penetration to penetrate weak spots at 2,000m, this terrible spread functionally forces Leclercs to get into engagements below 800m as much as possible, both negating the Leclerc’s accuracy advantage and unnecessarily putting them in uncomfortable situations where armour rules engagements, thus amplifying the Leclercs’ survivability issues.
Most importantly, it contradicts France’s documented fire-control capabilities. In the end, it’s all about aligning with primary sources.
For these reasons, I urge Gaijin to adjust spread to ≤ 0.1 mils per technical manuals and review the gun’s behavior against the aforementioned sources.
Let’s ensure Gaijin sees this. France’s flagship MBT deserves its documented precision.
Happy hunting!
- Yes
- No