British media report that after the visit of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kiev on April 9, 2022, the British government approved new supplies of military equipment as military assistance to Ukraine, including the transfer of 120 Mastiff, Wolfhound, Husky and Spartan armored vehicles from the presence of the British Army, as well as the supply of anti-ship missiles from the presence of the British Navy of the American Harpoon production for coastal defense.
Mastiff armored vehicle of the British Army, equipped with additional protection kits (c) Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom
Mastiff is the British designation of the MRAP-class Cougar wheeled armored vehicles acquired in 2006-2014 in the 6x6 variant manufactured by the American company Force Protection (acquired by General Dynanics Corporation in 2011), and modified with the installation of additional British protection kits. The combat mass of the Mastiff in the modified version is 23.5 tons, with a capacity of 10 people. In total, the British Army received 450 Mastiff vehicles, officially designated as PPV (Protected Patrol Vehicle), of which 417 remained on the balance sheet of the British Ministry of Defense at the end of 2019 (including 240 in reserve and in storage).
The Wolfhound is a variant of the Mastiff used as a transport vehicle for transporting supplies and designated as a Heavy Tactical Support Vehicle. In total, the British received 130 Wolfhound cars. of which 125 remained at the end of 2019 (including 68 in reserve and in storage)..
Husky is a lightweight machine of the MRAP class with the 4x4 formula and is a variant of the MXT-MV machine of the American corporation Navistar International, which at one time lost the US Army competition to the famous M-ATV machine developed by Oshkosh. In 2010-2012, the British Army received 351 Husky vehicles designated as Tactical Support Vehicle (TSV), at the end of 2019, 320 vehicles remained (including 120 in reserve and in storage).
Finally, the Spartan is an old light tracked armored personnel carrier of the Scorpion light tank family (SRV(T)), decommissioned by the British Army back in 2009. To date, the British have managed to attach decommissioned cars of the CPV(T) family only to Latvia. The practical value of the Spartan is now very doubtful, but it can be assumed that Ukrainians are being offered to use it as an armament carrier.
As for the plans to transfer Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, it may be recalled that the British Navy is armed with RGM-84D Harpoon Block 1C anti-ship missiles (British designation GWS 60), purchased in the United States in 1984, and which the British are now planning to decommission by 2027. Although these missiles are used by the British only as ship-based, however, if desired, the rearrangement of their transport and launch containers with appropriate equipment on land-based wheeled chassis for shore-based is unlikely to pose a serious technical problem. Previously, one variant of such adaptation was already known, when in the early 1990s the Danish Navy rearranged four four-container launchers with Harpoon Block 1C missiles from two type frigates decommissioned from the Danish fleetPeder Skram on 8x8 commercial wheeled automobile chassis, two batteries of semi-improvised mobile missile systems obtained in this way were in service with the Danish Coastal Defense until 2003.
The British Navy also already has experience in adapting ship-based RCC for coastal basing - in 1985, the British deployed an Excalibur coastal RCC battery in Gibraltar, which is an Exocet MM38 ship-based RCC launchers installed on shore, and operated until 1997. In 1982, the Argentines promptly made an improvised coastal launcher of two Exocet MM38 missile launchers, removed from the old destroyer Seguí (former American type Allen M. Sumner) and mounted on a two-axle trailer, and, having delivered it to the captured Falkland Islands, successfully used it in combat, hitting the British destroyer Glamorgan with one missile on June 12, 1982.
It is worth noting that the new planned deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine announced by the British are complementary to the statement of the British government of April 8, 2022 on the allocation of a new package of military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of about 100 million pounds. It is reported that this package will include the next more than 800 portable NLAW anti-tank complexes, additional batches of Javelin ATGM and Starstreak air defense systems, as well as night vision devices, protective helmets and body armor. Earlier, the British government allocated military aid to Ukraine in the amount of about 350 million pounds.
