France Orders SHARD 120mm Arrow APFSDS to Replace Leclerc Tank Rounds by 2030.

France’s procurement agency, the Direction générale de l’armement, has ordered several thousand KNDS SHARD 120 mm APFSDS rounds under a multi-year framework reportedly worth over EUR 100 million. The move is designed to restore anti-armor overmatch for French and NATO tanks while strengthening Europe’s ammunition industrial base for high-intensity conflict.

KNDS Group signaled a major step in France’s armored lethality drive on 17 February 2026, after the Direction générale de l’armement notified KNDS Ammo France of an order for several thousand SHARD new-generation “obus flèche” rounds intended to sharpen the punch of French armored forces. KNDS presents SHARD as a high-intensity combat answer: a NATO-standard 120 mm kinetic-energy round designed to improve accuracy, increase penetration against modern main battle tanks, and reduce gun tube wear, with firing trials validated on both Leclerc and Leopard 2 platforms.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

SHARD is a NATO-standard 120 mm "arrow" APFSDS round delivering higher long-range armor penetration and accuracy, with reduced barrel wear for high-intensity combat (Picture source: KNDS).

French defense observers report a seven-year framework arrangement valued at more than EUR 100 million, with production work shared with Eurenco for energetic materials such as the double-base propellant powder and other components. The notification is described as having been issued on 24 December 2025 and later made public, with first serial rounds expected in the 2029 timeframe and broader fielding before 2030, aligning with the longer arc of France’s armored force refresh.

SHARD is an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot round, the NATO workhorse category for tank-on-tank engagements at distance. KNDS lists the complete round at 22 kg and 984 mm in length, built around a combustible case with a double-base propellant and an electric primer architecture, details that matter because they must interface cleanly with modern fire-control timing, breech sealing, and the ammunition handling constraints of autoloaders and bustle racks.

The manufacturer’s own data sheet frames SHARD as “Solution for Hardened Armor Defeat,” and the design choices track that mission. The round pairs a next-generation elongated tungsten-alloy penetrator with a high-mechanical-strength aluminum sabot. In performance terms, KNDS states an operational range of 2,500 m, a maximum range of 4,000 m, and a muzzle velocity of 1,720 m/s when fired from an L52-class 120 mm smoothbore gun. Compatibility is explicitly anchored to NATO standards, with compliance cited against STANAG 4385 and MOPI AEP 26, as well as Leopard 2 interface requirements, positioning SHARD as a true coalition-ready cartridge rather than a national outlier.

An “obus flèche” is not a classic full-bore shell in the historical sense; it is closer to a launched dart. The sabot allows a sub-caliber, very slender penetrator to be accelerated by a 120 mm gun, then discarded moments after muzzle exit, leaving a fin-stabilized rod to fly with low drag and high retained velocity. That architecture focuses the destructive effect into kinetic energy delivered on a tiny impact area. In simple terms, it is the difference between punching with a needle and hitting with a hammer: the needle concentrates force to defeat armor rather than relying on blast or fragmentation.

Compared with classic high-explosive or multi-purpose shells, the tactical use case is narrower but decisive. HE rounds are optimized for blast and fragments against soft targets, infantry positions, and structures, where armor penetration is secondary. Shaped-charge HEAT rounds can defeat armor through a metal jet, but their performance is heavily influenced by standoff, impact geometry, and countermeasures such as explosive reactive armor. A modern APFSDS “arrow” round like SHARD is built to restore overmatch against heavy armored threats by maximizing long-rod penetrator efficiency, pushing high muzzle velocity, and controlling dispersion so that first-round hit probability remains credible at the ranges where a tank duel is often decided.

SHARD’s claimed advantages go directly to those battlefield fundamentals. KNDS-affiliated reporting from 2024 described a 15 percent penetration gain while keeping dispersion low, alongside a 25 percent reduction in barrel wear, and higher velocities on longer guns such as Leopard 2’s L55, reported at 1,734 m/s. The same reporting emphasizes a numerically optimized design, a lighter aluminum sabot, and a new high-performance tungsten alloy penetrator developed with Plansee, plus an ITAR-free positioning intended to ease export and coalition supply without U.S. regulatory friction.

The NATO compatibility point is operationally significant: KNDS states SHARD can be fired from main battle tanks equipped with NATO 120 mm smoothbore guns, and independent reporting has repeatedly highlighted a cross-platform ambition that spans Leclerc, Leopard 2, and M1 Abrams families. That matters in a European theater where ammunition stocks, training pipelines, and wartime resupply plans increasingly assume multinational pooling and rapid redistribution under pressure. A common kinetic round reduces the risk that a battalion arrives with tanks but without the right anti-armor cartridge for the gun system at hand.

For France specifically, SHARD is also about replacing aging reference rounds and keeping the Leclerc credible against the newest generation of threat tanks. Open reporting on Leclerc’s current 120 mm portfolio has cited legacy kinetic rounds such as the OFL 120 F1-A alongside other natures of ammunition for lighter armor and fortifications, and the DGA-linked timeline suggests SHARD is intended to succeed earlier “flèche” stocks as the force modernizes. From a tactical standpoint, the combination of increased penetration and reduced dispersion translates into a wider engagement envelope: more confidence at longer range, better performance through unfavorable angles, and less reliance on multiple shots that expose a firing tank to counterfire and drones.

The “high-intensity” framing in the KNDS announcement should be read in the context of NATO’s post-Ukraine planning assumptions, where mass, tempo, and sustainment are back at the center of land combat. High-intensity conflict is unforgiving to barrels, logistics chains, and training cycles. A round that delivers higher terminal effect while lowering propellant pressure and tube wear is not merely a maintenance savings; it is a readiness multiplier when units must fire more often, stay lethal longer between depot-level interventions, and conserve scarce spare parts in prolonged operations. In that sense, SHARD is less about a single spectacular penetration statistic and more about building a sustainable anti-armor advantage that can survive the grind of a major war, which is exactly the scenario NATO members, including France, now plan for explicitly.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.