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                    "Commanders want to know if dispersed \u201cLego bricks\u201d of Leclercs and support vehicles can make themselves uninteresting to adversaries.A member of the French Army's 1st Chasseur Regiment of the 7th Armored Brigade helps a Leclerc tank to park during the preparation of the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2025. (Bastien Ohier / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)BESAN\u00c7ON, France \u2014 France\u2019s 7th Armored Brigade is experimenting with breaking up its armored platoons into smaller teams to be more discreet and offer less valuable targets on a drone-dominated battlefield, the unit\u2019s commander said.Whereas a French heavy cavalry platoon typically consists of four Leclerc main battle tanks and four VBL light armored vehicles, the brigade has been testing smaller units that can be combined \u201clike Lego bricks,\u201d Gen. Maxime Do Tran told Defense News last week at the brigade headquarters in Besan\u00e7on in eastern France.Drones have made armored maneuver more difficult in Ukraine, creating a heavily surveilled \u201ckill zone\u201d stretching kilometers from the frontline. Operating in smaller units reduces the risk of being targeted because an enemy might be less inclined to spend resources on just one or two tanks, according to Do Tran, who commands France\u2019s flagship heavy armored brigade.\u201cThe more insignificant you are, the less likely you are to be targeted,\u201d Do Tran said at an innovation day on Sept. 9. \u201cSo it\u2019s really about being as dispersed as possible.\u201d\u201cEven if we\u2019re spotted, even if there\u2019s transparency on the battlefield, since we\u2019re insignificant, ultimately it\u2019s not worth the effort because we\u2019re still talking about cost-effectiveness. It poses a dilemma to the enemy.\u201dRELATEDElements of the brigade, known in French as the 7e Brigade Blind\u00e9e or 7e BB, have been deployed to Romania, where France leads a multinational battle group.Do Tran said he considers a basic brick of heavy cavalry to consist of a tank and a VBL, while an infantry brick might be made up of seven or more soldiers. The brigade found that the single-tank, single-VBL combo was too small to provide sufficient tactical coherence, and has gone back to two tanks and two light armored vehicles for now, according to the general.\u201cWe maybe have to get away a little from this squadron structure,\u201d Do Tran said. \u201cIf we want to perform a breakthrough maneuver, I don\u2019t want to say, I need two or three squadrons. Maybe I need twenty bricks.\u201dGen. Maxime Do Tran (R), commander of France's 7th\u00a0Armored Brigade, speaks to a French officer from NATO's Allied Reaction Force at his headquarters in Besan\u00e7on, eastern France, on Sept. 9, 2026. (Rudy Ruitenberg/staff)The \u201cbrick\u201d concept may require a change in military training to prepare small-unit commanders to operate with more autonomy, he said.\u201cA tank platoon in our doctrine consists of four tanks. In terms of doctrinal developments, why couldn\u2019t it be one tank surrounded by three motorcycles and with drones overhead? Why couldn\u2019t it be ten tanks if we want to break through?\u201dThe 7th Armored Brigade\u2019s heavy cavalry tested half-platoon operations during France\u2019s Orion 2026 exercise earlier this year, mainly to assess the ability of non-commissioned officers to operate the concept, Do Tran said. The first challenge was to get NCOs to understand the commander\u2019s intent and take the initiative without the lieutenant, he said.\u201cWe haven\u2019t yet reached the stage of full autonomy and differentiated missions being assigned to a half-platoon. But in terms of structure, we\u2019re there.\u201dThe peacetime constraints of Orion 2026 kept movement largely confined to roads rather than allowing armor to maneuver across fields, according to the general. He said that meant the brigade wasn\u2019t able to fully practice force dispersion and force concentration as it would have liked.The brigade did successfully test reducing the footprint of its command posts and streamlining information flow, including through graphical orders transmitted via data link, the general said.The French Army presented an upgraded Leclerc tank featuring a drone cage at the Eurosatory defense exhibition near Paris on June 14, 2026. (Rudy Ruitenberg/staff)Do Tran said he has implemented the same concept of modularity to command, breaking up the command post into \u201cfive Lego bricks\u201d that can all operate together or be completely dispersed.The brigade commander said modularity is also something he\u2019ll be looking for in a future tank, \u201ca more open platform\u201d where the main gun might be swapped out for a counter-drone system or drone launchers.Firepower will sit mainly with artillery and drones, with the latter now almost equivalent to \u201cflying bombs,\u201d according to Do Tran. While direct fire hasn\u2019t disappeared, \u201cdirect fire from one cannon to another, that maybe is disappearing,\u201d and rather than a 120 mm or larger tank cannon, \u201cwhy not a loitering munition?\u201dTanks will continue to be needed to create tactical breakthroughs, even if movement has stalled in Ukraine for now, according to Do Tran. He said the French Army needs to retain the capacity to maneuver and exploit a breakthrough, whether obtained on the ground, in the air or through other means.Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.In Other News"
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