UK destroys Challenger tanks that could have gone to Ukraine

The Ministry of Defence has destroyed dozens of tanks that could have been sent to support Ukraine, costing taxpayers millions of pounds.

The government disposed of 43 Challenger 2 tanks, which make up the bulk of British armoured forces, by putting them “beyond any economic repair”, a Freedom of Information disclosure shows, The Times reports.

The cost to the MoD was £4.3 million and the disposals took place between 2010 and 2014. There is concern about whether the British Army could fight a protracted conflict after years of defence cuts.

The government plans to cut the army to a force of 73,000 personnel, the fewest since the Napoleonic War.

Major General Charles Collins, the assistant chief of the general staff, wrote in March that Britain would have to have the “strategic humility” to accept that it could no longer act independently in major conflicts.

He said that the war in Ukraine had exposed the “outdated” notion that large-scale wars were over. In January the UK said that it was sending 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.

The government initially procured 386 Challenger 2s in the mid-1990s, which served in the Iraq war, and 40 had been disposed of before 2010.

The number in active service was cut by 40 per cent as part of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, of which the destruction of vehicles was probably a part.

The MoD now plans to cut the number to 148, although these will be upgraded to the new Challenger 3 standard.

By comparison, according to Oryx, an open-source intelligence website, Russia has lost more than 2,100 tanks, and Ukraine has lost nearly 600 in the 18 months since the war started. As some losses will not be photographed, this will be an underestimate.

Another 75 Challengers had been put into long-term storage, which Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, said should be sent to Ukraine.

Ellwood said that the low number of tanks maintained by the army goes against the lessons learnt from Ukraine, where tanks are part of the modern battlefield mix.

“In reality, the number of serviceable tanks could be as low as a single tank regiment of around 44 platforms,” he said. “Such a poor defence posture does not reflect the deteriorating threat picture we now face.”

Justin Crump, a defence analyst who was a Challenger 2 commander, said that a lot of the tanks disposed of were some of the least-used vehicles, because they had already been in storage when a decision was taken to dispose of them.

“This is something we got wrong, and more widely, not having sufficient tanks ready to go with the units that would need to man them in times of conflict has been a serious issue, a policy I think the army is likely to reverse going forward.”

However, he said that the reason the tanks were disposed of rather than retained was in part that storage in the UK was expensive, and that at the time major land warfare in Europe was simply thought to be a thing of the past.

An MoD spokesman said: “As well as providing Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles, artillery systems and ammunition, we provided a squadron of Challenger 2 from our high readiness fleet. Gifting tanks from long-term storage does not help Ukraine as effectively.

“Challenger 3 will be the most lethal, protected and connected tank in Europe. The war in Ukraine has reinforced the importance of maintaining a heavy armour capability, and we are reviewing the number of Challenger 3s we are building to ensure the British Army’s fleet is sufficient to meet defence’s needs.”