The UK government has confirmed that it has no plans to supply Ukraine with additional Challenger 2 tanks, according to a written parliamentary response from the Ministry of Defence.
Responding to a question from Brian Mathew, Liberal Democrat MP for Melksham and Devizes, on whether the UK would send further Challenger 2 tanks, Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, stated:
“At present there are no plans to supply additional Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine.”
The UK originally sent 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine in 2023, forming a combat-effective squadron that, according to the government, played a key role in encouraging other international partners to provide Western Main Battle Tanks to Ukraine.
While additional Challenger 2s will not be sent, the UK has recently committed to delivering more than 50 armoured and protected vehicles to Ukraine, including modernised T-72 tanks. These are set to arrive by the end of spring, adding to the over 1,000 armoured, protected, and logistics vehicles that the UK has previously supplied.
Pollard reiterated that the UK remains engaged with Ukraine to ensure that British military assistance aligns with Kyiv’s strategic needs, stating:
“We continue to work closely with the Ukrainian Government to ensure the capabilities we provide meet the priorities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
The UK remains a key military supporter of Ukraine but has so far chosen to focus on a wider range of military aid rather than expanding its commitment of Challenger 2 tanks.
Hopefully the penny has dropped we might actually need to keep at least 3 regts🤞
If they are not upgraded, there is no way.
Hopefully we’ll now upgrade the remaining Challenger 2s – we’ve still got around 200 so we should really upgrade them all.
Yes, even the French and Italian are upgrading and a whole swag of their current and Italy is ordering new Panthers. The UK should maximise what’s its got and not let things sit and rust. Not sure if buying some C1/2s back from Jordan/Kuwait (?) to upgrade is a good option to bulk out numbers?
*current MBT’s
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We will only have CR3s from 2030 after FOC. We will not also have any CR2s in parallel.
Jacko, then we will have to increase the CR3 order substantially.
Does anyone know how well the Challengers have performed in Ukraine?
The Daily Mail had a YouTube video on this subject few months ago
A cliche but Google is your friend .
Not well in the mud. Too low and getting stuck. Great for sitting still and hitting from a far but on the move. Not so good off roads etcc, which considering that’s what they were designed for. Not great.
Again it’s what you watch! One crew got stuck another went across the same field with no problems. All these videos are made by people with an agenda ie Brit stuff is crap etc but in the main the Ukrainians don’t seem to have a problem with them.(apparently)
Additionally there’s “off road” and “off road” in Ukraine. During the Rasputitsa it doesn’t matter if you have a CR2, T72, or whatever. You are going to bog in.
During the 2 mud seasons you essentially cannot operate in the field without bogging down..it’s one of the reason Russian and soviet tanks are so light and small ( 40 tons) but even they big down in the mud season. That’s why it’s essentially gone to static warfare in ukriane..as soon as you hit one of the two mud seasons your offensive is over..To be very clear 60-70 ton western MBTs were never designed to fight in Eastern European mud..which is essentially impossible undertake manoeuvre warfare in..they were designed for Central European mud..which is completely different.
J, I know of one occasion when a rookie driver bogged a Chally in, in front of media. Henceforth a welter of stories about the tank being underpowered etc. There seems to be a huge anti-CR2 lobby out there, many comprising Russians and Americans.
They were used in a static manner in Ukraine up to July last year acting as sniper tanks firing from woodblocks. They deployed of course into Kursk which was an offensive. The crews love them, and there are several videos to that effect. They are no heavier than the most recent M1A2s.
Hopefully that means they will be converted all the 213 challenger 2s we have.. personally I would ask to swap the 11 challenger 2s left in Ukraine for some nice leopard 2s so we can have them back and then convert all 224 to challenger 3 and keep 3 regiments of MBTs as the core of 3 heavy brigades.
Defo upgrade as many Challenger IIs to IIIs as is feasible, and supplement with M1s from the US. Easier integration and more commonality than Leopards, and may also be political useful.
Matt, we don’t want M1s. Complex to operate two tank types. Abrams is a burden to support. Very maintenance intensive and thirsty on fuel. Would have to increase REME and RLC support significantly. Many Abrams over the years have been destroyed in combat or very seriously damaged so its survivability is suspect. However more modern versions are better than older versions in that respect. Many are reluctant to buy American as they are no longer a reliable ally and technical partner.
Jon, as you say there are only two armoured regiments in FS, so you would have to fix that first.
Chairman Starmer 🐹🦄🌈 has no more to give.