Britain has only 36 Challenger battle tanks ready to go into combat after five years of cuts to the army’s frontline forces, writes Tim Ripley.
About 380 of the 62-ton Challengers were bought in the 1990s but the fleet has been run down to such an extent that defence insiders say less than a full regiment’s worth of tanks — normally 56 vehicles — are at “high readiness”.
The coalition’s 2010 defence review cut the number of frontline tank regiments from five to three but army sources say that only one of these is being trained and equipped to go to war and will not be ready until the end of the year.
The army has not used its Challengers in action since 2008 when they spearheaded an offensive against the Shi’ite militia in the Iraqi city of Basra.
Government ministers have dismissed tanks as “yesterday’s weapons” and the army has struggled to get money to train its tank crews in “tank on tank” armoured warfare.
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“Since the spring, events in Ukraine have been concentrating people’s minds and now the tanks seem to be back in fashion in Whitehall,” said a defence source.
A senior army officer claimed that a key part of the army 2020 development programme was the “full regeneration of an armoured manoeuvre capability”.