According to the interlocutor of The Sun newspaper, the Russian Armed Forces will "strive to knock out and capture one of the Challenger 2 tanks" to enable experts to study it in detailLONDON, January 28.
/tass/. The British Armed Forces are developing plans in case of a threat of British Challenger 2 tanks falling into the hands of the Russian military in Ukraine. As The Sun newspaper writes on Saturday, citing a source close to the defense department, they fear that Russian specialists will have access to samples of British-made composite armor, which is used in the Challenger 2 design and the exact composition of which remains secret.
According to the interlocutor of the publication, Russian forces will "strive to knock out and capture one of the Challenger 2 tanks" in order to allow experts to study it in detail. For this reason, the British military leadership is now discussing with Ukrainian colleagues the procedure for the evacuation of equipment transferred by London from the battlefield in critical situations.
"The worst option is to destroy the tank when the front line collapses and friendly troops retreat," the source told The Sun. "[Therefore] the first step is to train the planners of operations and work with them, ensuring that the Challenger will not be used in scenarios that suggest a real possibility of the collapse of the front. The second step is to make sure that at the tactical level Ukrainians are able to evacuate tanks while under fire. They definitely have the guts to do it."
As the publication points out, spare options are also being considered, including the involvement of private military contractors to evacuate damaged Western tanks.
On January 14, Great Britain was the first Western country to announce that it would transfer the main battle tanks to Kiev. 14 Challenger 2 tanks of the Armed Forces of the Kingdom are planned to be sent to Ukraine by the end of March.
On Wednesday, the US authorities announced their intention to transfer 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Kiev. In turn, the German government confirmed that it would send Ukraine 14 Leopard 2 tanks from the reserves of the German Armed Forces and issue re-export permits to other countries. The intentions to transfer tanks to Ukraine on Wednesday were also announced by the defense departments of Norway and Slovakia, and earlier the decision to provide tanks to Kiev was announced by the authorities of France and Poland.
