French Leclerc tank successfully shoots down drone with 120mm shell in Abu Dhabi trials.

France has demonstrated that its Leclerc can destroy FPV drones using a 120 mm canister round during live-fire trials in Abu Dhabi, a capability confirmed on May 20, 2026, by the French Military Governor of Strasbourg and commander of the 2nd Armored Brigade. The test matters because it shows Western armored forces are actively adapting tanks for close-range drone defense after the Russia-Ukraine war exposed how vulnerable even heavily protected armored vehicles have become to low-cost aerial threats.

The trials used the OEFC F1 canister round developed by KNDS France, which disperses roughly 1,100 tungsten balls in a shotgun-like cone to intercept drones through volumetric saturation rather than direct precision impact. The concept gives the Leclerc an opportunistic self-defense anti-drone capability against FPV drones, quadcopters, and loitering munitions without adding external systems, reflecting a broader shift in modern warfare toward rapid battlefield adaptation, layered survivability, and improvised counter-UAV solutions.

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During live-fire trials in Abu Dhabi, a French Army Leclerc main battle tank assigned to the 5th Cuirassier Regiment successfully shot down a drone using a 120 mm OEFC F1 canister round to evaluate short-range, opportunistic anti-drone defense capabilities. (Picture source: French Army)

On May 20, 2026, the French Military Governor of Strasbourg - Commander of the 2nd Armored Brigade confirmed that a Leclerc main battle tank assigned to the 5th Cuirassier Regiment successfully shot down a drone during live-fire trials conducted in Abu Dhabi using a 120 mm OEFC F1 canister round. The exercise was likely conducted under the authority of the Future Combat Command, or CCF, created on August 1, 2023, to accelerate battlefield adaptation and doctrinal integration.

The firing conditions intentionally exceeded engagement parameters observed in Ukraine and the Middle East, including perpendicular drone approach vectors, erratic trajectories, smaller target dimensions, and higher engagement altitudes. The trials addressed a vulnerability identified since 2022 in Ukraine, namely the limited effectiveness of conventional armored defensive systems and machine guns against low-altitude FPV drones operating at short range around armored vehicles. Unlike historical tank-versus-aircraft engagements using conventional HE ammunition, the Leclerc used a dedicated canister saturation round optimized for short-range spraying effects. 

The CCF reports directly to the Chief of Staff of the French Army and is commanded by Army Corps General Bruno Baratz. It merged the Command Doctrine and Leadership Training Center, the French Army Technical Section, the Army Battle Lab, and the Scorpion Combat Expertise Force into a single structure responsible for experimentation, doctrinal adaptation, and operational feedback exploitation. The Leclerc anti-drone trials likely fall within the ATHENA (Acceleration of Transformation at the Level of Future Engagements) transformation framework, which prioritizes rapid adaptation at the unit level rather than conventional acquisition timelines.

The methodology resembles wartime adaptation cycles observed in Ukraine, where tactical modifications and new engagement procedures are implemented operationally before industrial standardization occurs. In the French case, the objective was potentially to determine whether existing tanks and ammunition rounds could acquire secondary anti-drone roles without modifications. The 5th Cuirassier Regiment has been permanently deployed at Zayed Military City in Abu Dhabi since June 2016 after replacing the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade as the standing French Army formation in the UAE.

Since 2024, the regiment has operated under the authority of the 2nd Armored Brigade headquartered in Strasbourg. Its permanent inventory includes 16 Leclerc tanks, 14 VBLs, 14 VBCIs, five CAESAr 155 mm howitzers, VAB engineering vehicles, and two DCL armored recovery vehicles. The regiment also functions as a desert warfare training center and logistical support structure for French deployments across the Gulf. During Operation Apagan in August 2021, the unit deployed a combined-arms tactical group for force protection operations at Al Dhafra Air Base and Kabul airport, contributing to the evacuation of 2,834 individuals, including 142 French nationals, 62 European citizens, and 2,630 Afghan personnel.

Its long-term deployment in the Middle East, therefore, exposed the regiment to persistent UAV and loitering munition threats earlier than most metropolitan French formations. The OEFC F1 (OEFC meaning Explosive Shell with Directed Sweeping Effects) was developed by GIAT Industries, later Nexter, and now KNDS France, as part of the Leclerc ammunition family. The round, fired from the CN120-26/52 smoothbore gun, uses the NATO-standard 120×570 mm cartridge format and was designed for close-range anti-personnel combat, convoy protection, trench clearing, and urban warfare.

French Army characteristics identify a payload of roughly 1,100 tungsten balls propelled at approximately 1,410 m/s with an effective range of 500 meters. Unlike OFL F1/F2 APFSDS rounds or OECC F1 HEAT-MP ammunition, the OEFC operates through kinetic saturation immediately after muzzle exit. The canister ruptures almost instantly, generating a widening cone of tungsten projectiles instead of a single penetrator or blast-fragmentation effect. The concept of this round emerged from post-Cold War operational requirements for urban warfare and asymmetric combat environments. The idea behind the anti-drone firing relies on volumetric interception rather than direct impact against the target itself.

Indeed, once fired, the tungsten payload disperses into a cone crossing the predicted drone flight path like a giant shotgun shell. FPV drones and quadcopters require only limited structural damage to become non-operational because rotor destruction, severed wiring, battery penetration, gyroscopic destabilization, or flight control damage are sufficient to trigger loss of control. Compared with engagement using 7.62 mm or 12.7 mm machine guns, the OEFC significantly increases hit probability because the projectile cloud compensates for crew reaction delays and fire control imprecision. The principle resembles naval Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) such as Phalanx or Goalkeeper, as well as Benelli’s new M4 A.I. Drone Guardian shotgun, where defensive effectiveness depends on projectile density rather than precision single-shot engagement.

The Leclerc, therefore, could acquire in the future a limited and opportunistic short-range anti-drone capability without using its AANF1 7.62mm machine gun. During the exercise, French Army personnel identified engagement geometry and fire control synchronization as the primary technical challenges. The tests included perpendicular drone attack vectors because lateral trajectories generate high angular target speed relative to the gunner’s line of sight, stressing turret traverse, stabilization, lead computation, ballistic anticipation, and crew reaction time simultaneously. Frontal drone approaches are way easier because the target naturally enters the projectile cone after muzzle exit.

The Leclerc nevertheless possesses the core characteristics favorable to such engagements, including rapid turret traverse, fully stabilized gun laying systems, advanced fire control architecture, and high first-shot accuracy. The decisive factor remains projectile dispersion because the OEFC F1 canister round tolerates substantial aiming error while still maintaining effective hit probability against maneuvering aerial targets. It is important to note that the concept remains constrained by the physical characteristics of the Leclerc and cannot replace dedicated short-range air defense systems.

Gun elevation remains limited because the vehicle was designed primarily for horizontal combat rather than vertical anti-air engagement like the Gepard. Ammunition capacity onboard the vehicle is restricted compared with autocannon-based SHORAD systems, while reload cycles remain slower than automatic anti-aircraft weapons. Each OEFC round also carries significantly higher logistical and financial costs than conventional anti-drone munitions. The practical target set is therefore likely restricted to FPV drones, quadcopters, low-altitude reconnaissance UAVs, and terminal-phase loitering munitions operating close to the vehicle.

French Army terminology reflected these limitations through the expression “opportunistic anti-drone capability”, indicating an emergency self-defense measure rather than a substitute for dedicated SHORAD assets. The trials directly reflect battlefield developments observed since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, where FPV drones altered the economic balance between low-cost aerial systems and heavily protected armored vehicles like tanks. Russian and Ukrainian losses demonstrated the vulnerability of turret roofs, engine decks, optics, logistics convoys, artillery systems, and exposed infantry to improvised drone attacks.

Existing NATO armored defensive systems had primarily been optimized against anti-tank guided missiles, RPGs, APFSDS penetrators, and direct-fire anti-armor threats rather than against low-altitude aerial systems approaching from irregular angles. Russian and Ukrainian forces consequently improvised anti-drone adaptations, including cage armor, roof-mounted electronic warfare systems, fragmentation-based firing concepts, remote weapon stations, and additional machine gun mounts. The French approach differs because it repurposes an already fielded 120 mm ammunition round rather than integrating an external anti-drone hardware onto the vehicle itself. 

Tank-versus-aircraft engagements have existed since World War II, but historically remained improvised battlefield responses rather than formal armored warfare missions. German tanker Otto Carius claimed that his Tiger I destroyed a Soviet IL-2 Sturmovik near Vitebsk in late 1943 using the 88 mm KwK 36 main gun, while Soviet officer Dmitri Loza later described a Sherman unit destroying a low-flying German Ju 88 bomber. During the Cold War, Soviet doctrine indeed incorporated anti-helicopter firing procedures for T-55, T-62, T-64, T-72, and T-80 crews using HE-FRAG rounds such as OF-412, OF-19, and OF26.

During Operation Desert Storm on February 26, 1991, a U.S. Army M1 Abrams reportedly destroyed an Iraqi Mi-24 helicopter with a 120 mm main gun round in close-range conditions. During the Syrian Civil War and later in Ukraine, Russian, Syrian, and Ukrainian tank units repeatedly attempted improvised engagements against FPV drones, quadcopters, reconnaissance UAVs, and loitering munitions using HE rounds and machine guns, but the French Leclerc configuration differs because it basically employs a gigantic shotgun shell to generate a cone of roughly 1,100 tungsten projectiles traveling at approximately 1,410 m/s against an aerial target at short range.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.