UK to give up MBT?

[paddy]

Yes you are right but we started with 420 Challenger 1, then 220 challenger 2 and now we are converting just 140 of those to Challenger 3 and scrapping the rest.
with those numbers they will be minor support weapon rather than what their name implies, a main battle tank...unless its a very small battle

The contract to convert just 140 Challenger 2 to 3 is £800m ( or 1Billion USD)
a javelin anti tank missile cost 78k USD

 

[paddy]

Funny how we have been told we dont need the MBT anymore and its an outdated form of warfare yet to day we are sending 8000 troops to mainland European with 120 warriors ( basically a British M2 Bradley type tracked vehicle ) 12 heavy tracked artillery and you guessed it 72 Challenger 2 MBT's.

I just hope this isn't a repeat of the British expeditionary force that we had to rescue from Dunkirk.

 

[iambrb]

Interesting take, and from the UK no less

 

[paddy]

I think there are several factors here
1/ the effectiveness of the tank depends on the effectiveness of your enemy.
If he is western, has satellite tracking of the battle field, air superiority. Drones, apache, shoulder launch capability anti tank then i would not want to be in a tank.
2/ The bigger argument here though is the Government does not want to spend out on more tanks so they will put up and excellent "tanks are so yesterday" argument.
This is mostly because our British army is leaning more towards a defence force and as a Island, tanks will struggle to breach our borders. so better to spend the money on defence against tanks than Tanks ?
The rest of Europe has land borders and quite frankly Trump was right...they need to stop relying on the US and The UK for defence.
End of the day its all about money and the UK wastes billions on defence. I remember the Jaguar fleet here, ageing ground attack aircraft that were given and new lease of life upgrade with helmet "look and shoot" tech costing millions and then scrapped the following year, the Nimrods that were 3/4 rebuilt and then scrapped on the factory floor, the Harriers given new engines to work in hot climates, upgraded to GR9 and immediately scrapped and then this week we read that the entire C130 fleet that has just undergone a main centre section wing replacement to keep them in service till 2033 have now been scrapped less than a year later. As for the UK's new Ajax armoured vehicle programme that has now been shelved again because it doesnt work at a cost of £5.5 billion ? that barely scratches the surface.
Lets hope the US doesn't give up on the F35 program or we will have to carriers with no aircraft

i could go on