Accepting that yesterday I set out only to provide some views on the UK decision to gift 14 Challenger MBT’s and support vehicles to Ukraine, I make no apology for continuing on the same them in regard to CGS comments yesterday and, by request, to provide some details on the huge and very important programme awarded to RBSL in May 2021 to upgrade 148 existing Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks (MBT’s) to Challenger 3. I will add a few other wider but no less important related comments in the final part of this ‘Commentary’ piece.
Addressing a number of press correspondents yesterday Chief of the General Staff (CGS), General Sir Patrick Sanders is reported to have warned that Britain’s donating of military equipment to Ukraine will leave British forces weaker. Clearly, given that over the next few years 148 Challenger 2 MBT’s are to be rebuilt to Challenger 3 standard by RBSL in Telford the number of serviceable Main Battle Tanks available to the British Army is probably lower today than at any time over the past thirty years, Add to this, despite significant work done by DE&S and industry to keep the current and already much reduced fleet of Challenger 2 MBT’s operational there is, as one would expect in defence equipment that is close to thirty years old, various degrees of obsolescence that cannot be ignored.
But that was, it seems, only one side of the coin because General Sanders is reported to have then gone on to accept that Ukraine needed UK ‘tanks and guns now’ and that he was confident they would be used appropriately.
General Sanders comments had followed the formal and much anticipated announcement made by Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace to the House of Commons in which he confirmed that the UK would be sending 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, accompanied by recovery vehicles, vast quantities of spare parts along with hundreds of armoured vehicles, AS-90 artillery heavy guns and high-velocity rockets and unmanned vehicles.
While I very much welcome that the Chief of the General Staff, the Army’s most senior officer, making remarks that could easily be seen as a warning to the government that the Army is concerned over levels of available equipment, his remarks leave a degree of doubts as to whether he is actually opposed or maybe even, favorably disposed to sending 14 presumably fully serviceable Challenger 2 MBT’s to Ukraine.
That the Army has been allowed, partly through its own failures and mismanagement, to be in such a weak position today in respect of equipment capability is no longer an issue that can be swept under the carpet. The mistakes go back very many years and one may argue that the dream that the Army had of having fleets of various types of land fighting vehicles under what used to be called the Future Rapid Effects System (FRES) is partly to blame. While FRES was never officially abandoned in name, that the Coalition Government decided that the Army’s plan was as unacceptable as it was unaffordable came as little surprise when it was formally announced in SDSR 2010 that most of the planned forward equipment support fighting vehicles contained under the FRES heading with the exception of Scout (later renamed Ajax) would survive, one may argue that this was also a strong message to the Army to get its house in order rethink what it required.
Press comments this morning in regard his remarks generally conclude that this is a warning from CGS that seeks to hold the government to account regarding the need for replenishment of its military resources. That may well be so and what was intended and if so, it should eb a wake-up call to government. The Army is however getting the Boxer Armoured Vehicle and it may yet get the much-troubled Ajax armoured fighting vehicle which in evidence to the Defence Select Committee last week, MinDP Alex Chalk suggested that the programme had now turned a corner.
Whilst one might have wished that CGS provided details of how many Challenger 2 MBT’s were currently serviceable and fully operational – a question that perhaps that a member of parliament might do well to ask – his remarks suggesting that the Army will be weaker as a result of sending 14 Challenger MBT’s to Ukraine and if-so-facto questioning levels of retained Army capability are sound, reasonable and welcome.
In his own statement to the House of Commons Defence Secretary Ben Wallis dangled a carrot in regard of the possibility of increasing from 148 numbers of Challenger 2 MBT’s that will be converted by Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) to Challenger 3 status. If that does occur and presumably if these are taken from the 79 (less 14 that one assumes will remain permanently in Ukraine) Challenger 2’s that the Government planned to retire and that whether still operational or in store, one may assume that an increasing level of work will be required to upgrade them to Challenger 3 standard.
Challenger 3 Detail
The process of upgrading Challenger 2 to Challenger 3 status requires initially that each vehicle chosen will go through a series of upgrades under the Heavy Armour Automotive Improvement Programme (HAAIP). This programme is led by DE&S with RBSL undertaking the engineering work required and integration work carried out by Babcock International.
The initial upgrade work is designed to increase mobility and stability ahead of fitting of a new turret and operational systems by RBSL and that in effect will turn this leviathan into a Challenger 3. During this initial phase each and every component will be removed and inspected and on the MBT mainframe, if welding or others repairs are required this will be done.
Apart from the new turret and being fully digitised, Challenger 3 will emerge with a new 120mm smoothbore gun, one that unlike Challenger 2, will use a common standard of ammunition – this being high velocity travelling at the speed of sound and with increased range, a new automatic target detection and tracking system new modular armour, upgraded engine with new suspension and cooling systems, a ‘Trophy Active’ protection system and importantly, a suite of sights and thermal long-range cameras that will allow tank commanders to have enhanced day and night targeting ability.
Challenger 3 ‘Initial Operating Capability’ (IOC) is planned for 2027 and it is planned to be fully operational by 2030.
Some Other Thoughts
While CGS might be described by some as speaking with a ‘forked tongue’ yesterday in regard of certain remarks it is, as I suggested earlier, very gently though these may have been made, pleasing that the most senior member of Army has been prepared to go slightly off-line challenging government is very welcome. I live in hope that other Service Chiefs might follow the same example but I am not holding my breathe.
I would also hope that, if rumours surrounding the possible cancellation of the Type 32 frigate programme, turn out to be true (this may well be merely testing the water for views), that we would very quickly hear views from the First Sea Lord as to the dangers of cancelling a programme that has as yet not even begun but that may also be considered as having been a very sensible long term strategic intent. Work was never intended to even begin before 2028 and there is, as yet, no official plan, competition or order for Type 32 vessels but the planning required, design and development is already under way and we know that the intention would be to build these at Rosyth.
However, a recent report from the National Audit Office stated that the Royal Navy had itself withdrawn plans for Type 32 requirement due to unaffordability along also with plans for Multi-Role Support Ships (MRSS).
I have to say that I do find the strategy that the Royal Navy has played in regard to Type 32 and MRSS ships to be at odds with Government messaging but if true, walking away from either will have serious longer-term implications for maritime defence and jobs.
I would of course also love to hear the Royal Air Force coming clean about lack of combat air capability ahead of ‘Tempest’. That the UK has insufficient numbers of Typhoon and F-35’s is blatantly obvious but the silence from the Royal Air Force is as deafening as ever just as it also is in regard of premature withdrawal of C-130J’s. Sadly, I do not expect anything to change as there appear to be many other issues that take priority within the RAF these days meaning that capability, equipment requirement and of the sorting out the issue of a severe shortage in trained combat air pilots appears to be a very low priority.
CHW (London – 17th January 2023)
Howard Wheeldon FRAeS
Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd,
M: +44 7710 779785
Skype: chwheeldon
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