The UK presently has 227 Challenger II tanks and will soon have less. 148 of the current tank fleet will be upgraded to Challenger IIIs, with improvements to powerplant, gun, communications and targeting; a vaunted "digitization of the turret" will allow "us to deliver immense warfighting capabilities in battlespaces filled with a range of enemy threats".
So says UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and perhaps he's right, we'll wait and see if these produced in Shropshire Rheinmetall engines of war produce the goods, all 148 of them. Pause for a moment and ask yourself if appx. halving the UKLF's tank fleet will "deliver immense warfighting capabilitities."
I'd argue no, it won't. This tiny hi-tech, complex, opposite of mass-producible force wouldn't last long on the battlefield and couldn't be replaced quickly enough to make up for inevitable losses. The Germans, when you think on it, had similar issues in WWII viz a vis the Tiger and Soviet T34s.
Immense warfighting capabilities? Or a so-called Conservative UKGOV gaslighting the nation on its defense while they continue to cut actual fighting strength to save money. Hey, all that welfare ain't cheap and odds on, we'll never have to fight another major conventional war again, ever. Right.
Odds on? I'll leave you to throw the dice, and Guinea on everyone's favorite monkey that Whitehall's cost cutting mandarins have backed the wrong dog. But that's as maybe.
In the meanwhile, the UK's sending 14 of its 1998 vintage Challenger IIs to the Ukraine. Rishi Sunak's also sending 30 self-propelled guns to Zelensky. By way of context, the UK has 89 of these tracked howitzers.
Make of this what you will,
LSP
