UK denies Challenger 2 gift to Ukraine reduces operational capabilities PHOTO

Lawmaker concern is slowly but surely climbing in the United Kingdom over its ability to simultaneously support Ukraine with donations of Challenger 2 main battle tanks while maintaining enough active inventory to protect British interests if needed.

A top UK military official today pushed back on the claim that the decision to donate 14 Challenger 2 vehicles to Ukraine has cut the British Army’s stock of “operational” main battle tanks by almost a third, Breaking Defense reports.

Responding to a lawmaker claim that the supply of the tanks to Kyiv equated to a loss of between 25-30 per cent of British Army “operational assets,” from the overall fleet, Lt. Gen. Robert McGowan, UK Chief of Defence Staff for Financial and Military Capability, suggested the real percentage is “not that high,” during a British Defence Committee hearing today.

The UK counts 227 Challenger 2 tanks in inventory; if the claim that 14 of those represented a third of the operational tanks was correct, that would imply only 42 Challenger 2 vehicles are operational — or less than 19 percent of the overall inventory.

However, McGowan refused to discuss Challenger 2 serviceability issues, disclose exact figures of how many tanks the British Army currently deems operationally ready or say how many have arrived in Ukraine — all questions posed by lawmakers who are increasingly focused on the UK’s ability to handle its own security needs while supporting Ukraine.

The increased threat posed to European security by Russia has led to UK lawmakers intensifying scrutiny around British Army capabilities, which have been in the spotlight because of cancelled acquisitions, technical difficulties, contractor disputes, gross overspending and operational readiness issues.

The move to gift the tanks to Ukraine broke a political stalemate across Europe, which eventually saw Germany and an international coalition agree to send Leopard 2 MBT’s to the Eastern European country as it prepares for a spring counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion.

Understanding the environment is the baseline for successful naval operations. To develop more and better undersea charts, the Navy is combining hydrography with autonomy for the first time.

Despite widespread support for the Challenger 2 decision, Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders, UK Chief of the General Staff, said in January that it would leave the British Army “temporarily weaker” in an internal memo to soldiers, according to the BBC.

Part of the Challenger challenge is that a significant portion of the arsenal is set to be upgraded to a new capability.

The British Army contracted manufacturer Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) to upgrade 148 of the tanks to a new Challenger 3 standard under a £800 million ($968 million) deal in May 2021. Main design changes include integration of a new turret with a 120 millimeter smoothbore gun, improved long-range commander and gunner primary sights featuring automatic target detection, Israeli manufacturer Rafael’s Trophy Active Protection System (APS) and a better cooling engine.

While McGowan avoided discussion of the serviceability and condition of the Challenger 2 fleet, a British Army spokesperson told Breaking Defense in a statement that, “The tanks being fed into the upgrade process are being actively used by the Army, so will have some minor wear and tear. However, they are all of a serviceable standard when they enter the upgrade process.”

An official from RBSL, who asked not to be named, also said that, “The [British] Army have done the best they can with the resources they’ve got, but the priorities haven’t always been on making sure we’ve got a significant quantity of Challenger 2’s ready to go into service.”

The UK’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) procurement arm announced on Feb. 9 that approval for the Challenger 3 Critical Design Review (CDR) phase had been approved, opening the way for RBSL to focus on prototype vehicle manufacturing.

“A lot of our focus at the moment is making sure that we can get all of the components we need to actually put the vehicles together,” said a RBSL spokesperson. “That’s less of an issue with large items like barrels, guns and sights because they’re mature and pretty much off the shelf but identifying all the other components right at the heart of the tank is different.”

Once eight prototype tanks have been built, RBSL will plan for live fire trials and then assess “how quickly” it can move into low rate initial production, all ahead of IOC being targeted in 2027.

A total of 18 months of trials, split between sites in the UK and Germany, are planned before a systems qualification review will be completed in 2025.

“We will start ordering equipment late next year and delivery the first [Challenger 3] tank in Q3 2026,” added the industry spokesperson.

The UK MoD is also currently reviewing if additional Challenger 2 tanks should be included in the Challenger 3 upgrade program. Such a decision could be approved under the Integrated Review Refresh (IRR) — an updated national defense review set to be published in the coming weeks.

The IRR was launched specifically to address changes to equipment acquisition plans, better reflect how the UK should counter Russian aggression, largely based on analysis of the Ukraine war and battlefield trends that have emerged over the past year like the proliferation of drones and stockpile management.

“We’re aware of the [Challenger 3 review] discussions, but it doesn’t really change our program because any additional vehicles would just mean we either pick up a double shift in Telford, [England] to increase capacity in year or we could continue capacity after the [originally forecast] end of production,” said the RBSL spokesperson.

Other Programs Of Note

Meanwhile, there remains no initial operating capability date for the British Army’s troubled Ajax armored reconnaissance vehicle program, which has been beset by overspending and technical troubles costing £4 billion ($4.9 billion USD) over the last ten years.

“We are very nearly at the point where ministers will be able to announce the [operational capability] reset dates,” David Williams, UK MoD permanent secretary, told lawmakers today. He noted that Ajax reliability and growth trials started last month. Vehicle trials were originally stopped in November 2020 after excessive vibrations caused some British Army personnel to suffer hearing problems. Payments by the UK MoD to US manufacturer General Dynamics have also been on hold as a result of the debacle.

“My expectation is that we will not start repaying them [General Dynamics] or paying them any of the money for work already done, until we have made an announcement about the future of the program and the reset dates [are confirmed],” said Williams.

An order for 14 Boeing H-47 ER (Extended Range) Chinooks to be used by UK Special Forces has also run into difficulty, with a first delivery expected in 2027, one year later than planned.

“These aircraft are bought from the US government and as a consequence of that they have had delays in their program, so timing has moved back,” said Andy Start, Chief Executive of Defence Equipment and Support.

“We were hoping to accelerate [the H-47 program] but we can’t, not because of anything on our side related to funding, but because of the timing around the US program and in particular around global supply chain issues that the US government is facing.”