Dam straight
Your Friend,
LSP
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
Great Britain's newly appointed Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Patrick Sanders, has issued a challenge to the country's armed forces. These along with their allies must be "capable of... defeating Russia."
"The world has changed since the 24th February and there is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle," stated Sanders in a June 16 message to civil servants and all ranks.
With total respect to General Sanders, what a tall order. After several decades of cuts and the decimation of once proud regiments, such as the Glorious Gloucesters, the British Army amounts to some 76,000 men and women. But not to worry, it has a whopping 227 tanks, 5015 AFVs, 89 self-propelled guns, 89 towed guns and 126 rocket systems.
Like what, 178 guns? 200 tanks? Wow, at least there's some rockets. But what does this mean. That by 2025, according to the UK's Army, the Sceptered Isle has one, yes one and only one combat ready battle group of maybe 25,000 troops. There you have it, and to put it another way, a meaningless force without US heavy firepower. And by way of context, several months fighting has cost belligerents in the Ukraine more casualties than UKLF has members.
More on this and the Western European gamble of never having to fight another major, industrial war again (read the link, not long) anon. But I'd argue Sir. Patrick Sanders has a lot on his plate right now, as in rebuilding the British Army. Good luck to him.
Rule Britannia,
LSP