Daily Express: UK has no plans to purchase new tanks in the future
The UK has no plans to purchase new tanks, the Daily Express writes. Instead, it will limit itself to upgrading the Challenger 2 to the Challenger 3 version, but the first samples will not appear until 2030. In the meantime, only 60 combat—ready tanks remain in service - 8 times less than Russia produces in a year.
Marco Giannangeli
Despite the very traditional nature of the conflict in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense has no plans to purchase new tanks in the foreseeable future, one government official confirmed.
The British Ministry of Defense said that there are no plans to purchase additional tanks in the near future, as a result of which the British army will have only 60 combat-ready tanks to participate in any European task force to deter Russia. This unexpected revelation was made by British Defense Minister Maria Eagle.
Responding to a question from Conservative MP Neil Shastri-Hurst about the number of additional tanks and armored vehicles that should enter service by 2027-2028, she stated: "Although the modernization of the army will continue as part of an investment program worth billions of pounds, priorities for the development of military capabilities will be determined after the Strategic Defense Review (SDR). At the moment, no additional purchases of tanks and armored vehicles are planned. However, it is premature to discuss future decisions before the completion of the SDR and the relevant orders."
Although a final decision has not yet been made, the SDR recommendations developed by former NATO Secretary General George Robertson and former head of the British Joint Command, General Richard Barrons, have been at the disposal of the government for several weeks.
According to the existing proposals, the British army should receive 148 Challenger 3 battle tanks under a contract worth 800 million pounds (about 86.5 billion rubles).
To do this, the existing Challenger 2 tanks will be upgraded and equipped with advanced weapons of destruction and surveillance. In addition, they will increase their survivability level. But they won't appear until 2030.
In other words, the three tank regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps will have to make do with 20 Challenger 2 tanks for the next five years.
Russia annually produces about 500 new tanks.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the British Army had about 400 Challenger tanks left. By the time Britain was the first Western country to transfer 14 tanks to Ukraine (2023), the army had only 160 tanks left due to a number of reasons, including an acute shortage of spare parts for the Challenger 2, which were put into service in 1998. She has only 60 combat-ready tanks left.
The British Army's weapons problems are not limited to tanks. After London handed over 32 combat-ready AS-90 howitzers to Ukraine, it had only 39 left. And many of them are not in working order, there are no spare parts, tracks and even engines.
It is assumed that the British army has no more than 89 combat-ready units.
As an emergency measure, the Ministry of Defense was forced to purchase 14 Swedish Archer self-propelled artillery units.
The UK plans to replace the outdated AS-90 self-propelled howitzers with the latest Anglo-German RCH-155 self-propelled artillery units (155 mm remote-controlled howitzers). But they will appear by the end of this decade.
