The British Army recently demonstrated its expeditionary capabilities on Exercise KHANJAR OMAN 19 (KO19) in the Middle East, with members of 1 Armoured Infantry Brigade working alongside the Royal Army of Oman.
According to the British Army in a news release, the Royal Tank Regiment with supporting units deployed an armoured battlegroup, consisting of Challenger 2 main battle tanks and Warrior infantry fighting vehicles to the Ras Madrakah training area.
“The crews operating the Challenger 2 have been using experimental tactics during a series of challenging missions, all whilst working across long distances in extreme temperatures. Throughout the exercise Command Troop have been establishing and maintaining radio communications by operating radio rebroadcast equipment from the middle of the desert.
The expansive and complex training area, which is larger than Salisbury Plain and BATUS in Canada, has presented plenty of challenges to the troop.”
Soldiers from 659 Squadron, 1 Army Air Corps (1AAC), are providing Wildcat helicopters for the exercise; in reconnaissance and medical evacuation roles. Simultaneously they are delivering a Desert Environmental Training Package, to prove the Squadron’s capability in all environments.
I wonder how Oman’s Challenger 2 tanks are holding up compared to the British. Shame we didn’t export more tanks like ze dam Germans….
After the pasting the Leopards got in Syria and the tail pipe vulnerabilities not to mention fuel consumption of the M1 suddenly the Challenger does not look that bad. 120 mm smooth bore might have been nice to have from a logistics stand point but the 120 mm riffled gun is still plenty lethal and with the collapse of the Russian economy it seems likely we will ever see more than a handful of T14’s any time soon. Challenger is still under powered but this does not seem like that major an issue. a relatively low cost upgrade program like black knight can keep it relevant for years to come.
Yes the smooth bore was all about less expensive amo, it had nothing to do with the power or accuracy of the current gun. The Black Knight will keep Challenger up there with the best. There is a lot of hype about the T14 however Challenger has passed the test of actual combat and none have ever been lost in combat. Fitting a 1500hp power plane would be a great upgrade.
Bovington tank museum have the ROF 120mm smoothbore gun developed in conjunction with the rifled L30A1 as part of the Challenger 2 development program. The barrel is the same 55 calibres long and is fully chrome lined.
I wonder what were the reasons for not using it or developing it, now that the Army have realised it may be beneficial to use the same ammo as every other NATO tank user?
Just to be clear, does that picture represent the entire deployable elements of the British army ?
When the USAF pose for an Elephant walk, do they show only 4 vehicles or all of them? So yes, I expect that’s the lot. Last week the British Army proved itself in Egypt, but the article mentioned just one company of troops, who then later on got to meet a General. A year or two back we sent tanks to Latvia to hold back the Russians, but there was only 4 that time as well.
We.ve never sent tanks to Latvia. The Army sent a senior team who said it was too small.
Poland, CZ, SK, have… not forgetting Canada and, um, oh yes, The US…
We go have a Squadron still in Estonia.
There’s only two challengers in the picture though…
No Jonathan, three of um are fibreglass!
Battlegroups are shrinking all the time!
There are only 156 challengers available to the British Army and another 140 in storage which can be available at 3 to 6 months notice.
10 years ago there where 400 with 100 in storage and in 1990 there where 800 with 400 in storage .
Definitely not enough
I thought we only had 240 odd chally 2s left total. With half them in storage… Shamefull number, and to cut armoured brigades also….. we need to increase the army’s numbers to 100,000 full time minimum…and 50,000 reservists minimum… I hate the government for cutting back on almost everything we have, ships, tanks, RFA ships, helicopters, jet numbers halved, I could go on for years.. Ae have the money in the UK and we could have a bigger better millitray that we deserve. We don’t even spend 2% on defence when you discount the governments clever accounting! 1.5 at a push. It should be 3% atleast. We should be a world millitray power like we used to be….We are British after all….
Anyone know how they got the tanks over there? Point class seems a bit pointless for such a small force (no pun intended).
But there would be trucks and all other suport vehicles also. Point ship seems highly likely.
Does an Army Battle Group now consist of 4 tanks?
The British army just lost what respect it had with a lot of people with that video of the Para Regiment shooting at posters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Afghanistan. That means less public and political support for increasing expenditure defence generally and specifically on equipment such as Challenger tanks.
There was also the incident in 2015 of a serving General anonymously threatening a revolt if Jeremy Corbyn and Labour if he came to power and reduced the strength of the armed forces (forgetting that the Tories are actually doing this now in power), decommissioning Trident or taking certain foreign policy policies.
The above clearly shows that elements in the British army have far right sympathies and do not want to operate under democratic civilian oversight.
If we go down this third world nightmare scenario, we need to ensure:
– Political officers assigned to military units to ensure loyalty to the established political order
– Purges of officers and men who are unworthy of being part of a public organisation that is meant to protect us all
Does anyone really want to go down this road?
This site should put up an article about the issues
identified above this as it goes to the heart of continued public support for and trust in the forces.
“Go away, Shut Up”
You’ve used the same cut and paste shite on another story, how sad and pathetic are you? Its exactly the same. You cannot even be bothered to write different troll comments, you sad sad crusty tracksuited muppet. You get just a one on the troll-o-meter.
Iqbal@ Seems you want the Bolshevik solution. Horrible to suggest that.
We are already on the Soviet path when the army keeps undermining only one party (Labour) in favour of another (Tory). Their presence can be easily inferred. No trolling required.
Three incidents of Pro Tory positions stand out: Gen. Dannet becoming a Tory while still advising and criticising the last Labour govt, an anonymous General stating the army would revolt if Corbyn became PM and thus latest Corbyn poster shooting incident.
The armed forces are not anything special. They should be apolitical like the civil service, police and local govt administration. If they can’t manage that, it will be political officers and purges (but given suitable fluffy liberal nomenclature, of course).
Its quite simple, the current and past front row of the Labour party have been grossly negligent when it comes to defence. They have not attracted or promoted any person who was in the military which would give them a different perspective. Instead, their views are blinkered by political dogma and show boating, rather than the realities of this World.
If the video showing four lads in Para uniforms is true, it should be classed a typical British satire. Yes, there is a political message behind the video, in that they stand with soldier F. Why was it that when the Good Friday agreement was put together, did it only involved pardons for convicted terrorists? Why wasn’t everyone who took part in the “Troubles” given a pardon? Therefore, why should we who have placed our services and lives in the hands of the Government not feel aggrieved at the blatant injustice and immoral actions by those who are supposed to be leaders.
A quote from one of our earlier parliamentarians: “Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.”
Yes, I stand with solder F.
Same shit different post yet again son, god forbid pal make an effort to be original.
And it’s not para regiment, it’s the Parachute Regiment you Muppet.