The Ministry of Defence has published a transparency notice outlining plans to award a contract for the mid-life update of the British Army’s Titan and Trojan armoured engineer vehicles.
According to the notice, the programme covers “the provision of Titan and Trojan (‘T2’) Mid-Life Update (‘MLU’), for a period of up to 7 years” and will be delivered in two stages, comprising “Phase 1; design, development and demonstration and Phase 2; manufacture and embodiment.”
The estimated total value of the work across both phases is “£64.5M Ex VAT.”
Defence Equipment and Support has identified Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) as the intended supplier. The contract is listed with a value of “£63,333,333.33 excluding VAT” and “£76,000,000 including VAT,” with the earliest expected signing date of 15 December 2026. Delivery is projected to run from December 2026 until the end of 2033.
The notice confirms that the procurement will proceed as a direct award. The Ministry of Defence states that “the procedure type” will be “Direct award” with the justification given as “Single supplier – technical reasons.”
Elaborating on this, the authority explains that “due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier, RBSL, have the necessary technical expertise, knowledge and capability to deliver the requirement at a standard required.” It further notes that “as the Design Authority and the Original Equipment Manufacturer only RBSL can deliver the requirement,” adding that “due to safety, interoperability, and capability risks there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods and services.”
Titan and Trojan, both based on the Challenger 2 chassis, provide heavy combat engineering support to the British Army, including assault bridging, obstacle clearance and route opening. The mid-life update is intended to sustain these capabilities as part of the wider modernisation of the Army’s armoured force.
While RBSL is identified as the prime contractor, the notice also states that “RBSL is required to subcontract the embodiment work aspect of the requirement, under phase 2, in accordance with the extant Land Environment Service Provision and Transformation Contract.” All work is expected to be carried out in the United Kingdom. The transparency notice does not constitute a final contract award but confirms the Ministry of Defence’s intent under the Procurement Act 2023 to proceed with the upgrade programme on a sole-source basis.
‘…the wider modernisation of the Army’s armoured force.’
And what, precisely, does that ‘armoured force’ comprise?
A step in the right direction but a very small one.
Britain’s conventional deterrent requires an Army Corps of two armoured divisions as a minimum in order to have any credibility or utility.
I see no sign of any of the major political parties signing up to that at the moment.
A reforming government is required.
Agreed, we don’t have an armoured force, we have a small detachment that can be deployed as a token of British interest.
I welcome any step in the right direction, it makes me wonder though how much money we blew on Ajax when we could have spent a fraction of it on our existing equipment, rather than chucking some of it in the bin.
There’s a smell in the air, and last week’s announcement about CH3 delays could result in fewer vehicles due to the issues converting old CH2 hulls. Sounds very much like the cancelled Warrior Upgrade programme, which could not fit the new turrets to old bodies without considerable problems, allegedly. Let’s hope these two don’t face issues, too!
I had missed that.
Do you have a link or source for that?
SB, you can find the CH3 news on LAND on this site. The Warrior story is old news, but must be on here somewhere?
Nope there is zero chance of the UK fielding two full divisions as a NATO reserve Corps. The army ORBAT and numbers is not set up for that. When you add in the first requirement to provide defence of the UK and its overseas territories and the third requirement for supporting world wide stability it becomes a complete joke.
Essentially if you build an army for what the government has now said it will do it would need to be over 100,000 strong and take everything defence budget wise..
Quite so. Britain is in breach of its signed security assurances to Ukraine, in breach of its signed commitments to NATO and unable to fulfil its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Resources for national security must be freed up by giving up on the silly and unevidenced requirement to achieve ‘net zero’.
Systemic reform, a reforming government is required.
And what government is going to do that….
Probably every government except the one that we actually have.
You’re dreaming mate, none of them or radical or ready to reinvent the system because that generally results in losing the next election.
You are entitled to your view.
It is not one that I share.
I tend to agree. I think the inertia of this country’s malaise is too much to stop at this point
Structurally we absolutely could deploy two divisions. They wouldn’t be the best, or ideally orbatted, but we definitely could get 3 UK div based around 12 and 20th, supported by a mixed Archer/105 regiment and an MLRS regiment each, and 1 UK Division with 7, 16 and maybe elements of 11 X, and supported only by 105’s. 4 and 19 would probably be broken up for security units within ARRC.
But how long to actually deploy and how long could you keep it all deployed ? And what about the rest of the deployment requirements that the British army need to undertake ?
Depends. If you’re throwing two divisions under ARRC (presumably with a few NATO brigades and divisions attached) out the door, that implies a “Russia is rolling across the Polish Border” scenario. In which case harmony guidelines, and long term force generation cycles would go out the window and the divisions would basically stay in Eastern Europe until the war ended, we where driven off the continent, or they where redeployed to a new theatre.
As for the rest of the deployments the army undertakes, I’d consider a few things: Any war that would see the British Army grabbing two divisions together and throwing them at an enemy would also mean the reserves are being called up. Whatever elements of 4, 11, 19, the overseas Garrisons, and ASOB that didn’t get folded into the divisions would handle those taskings at a lower priority. I suspect in the event of a peer Europe V Russia style war though the priority would be: 1) ARRC and two Divisions, 2) Training Establishments for BCR’s and expanding the army, 3) Out of Area existing commitments. with 3) being very far behind the other two.
A VERY good piece of news,bit worrying for a while with rumours going around!
Yes, we discussed this a while ago. Good news.
Hi M8 Wasn’t this one of your items on your ORBAT Santa list ? You must have been a Good Boy 😉
On a serious note I do wonder if this is part of a cost driven review of the Army’s portion of the fabled “DIP” that they have been working hard on to complete by end of last year !
I’m no Green man and have no idea how many of these are still operable or in service but as £76 million would buy just 12 basic Boxers never mind a bridging version if it results in 20 of each it’s a bargain !
Now we just need some tanks !
there is about 33 of each on the books
Ah, thanks Simon, was going to reply. Yes, 33 each were bought.
How many actually in use I do not know.
Daniele, you have been worrying us for months with news that T2 were unsupportable and that they would be replaced somehow and strangely
by medium weight Boxer variants! Perhaps you will be changing your source!
Good news but many years over-late. A MLU should have been embodied in c.2018.
Incidentally T2 was the last medium or heavy armour procurement.
With the number of Sqns using them going down there was nothing stopping the ones in stowage being updated and rotated as and when!
Mate, assume just the 6 AE Squadrons in 22 and 26 RE now. Unless the Regiments have contracted even more since to just 2 AE Squadrons.
Still 3 Sqns,each with 3 troops an armd,field and spt troop that I can see (any serving sapper can of course correct that)
So 3 Trojan,Titan(?)per troop that’s only 18 with the Regts some at Bovington for training and the rest getting rusty!
18 of each
For such an asset that’s probably enough? As long as the balance hasn’t gone to rather shit at Ashchurch. Assume RETDU might have single examples?
Hi Graham.
My source is Gabs on X, and after that, he hears stuff from the Army themselves. They were looking at a Boxer with a bridge span far shorter than Titans at typically ruinous Boxer prices. I simply do not see the logic of that?
The fear then was if Titan goes, what chance Trojan will ne next with this Warrior lash up being planned? Not a proper AVRE able to do a multitude of tasks from mine clearance to obstacle removal.
Gabs has never been a reliable source though.
Is that so? Yet I find his ORBAT reports good. And no fantasy fleets like certain others.
I wonder if they will put some form of self defence auto turret on them.. you would imagine such a big and important target with the work they do on the battlefield would attract drones like flies to shit..
Very unlikely,with bridges,fascines,bucket arms etc in the way there would be no clear field of fire for any turret!APS in some form would be welcome though👍
The Trojan mechanical digger arm is very jerky, especially when oil cold because some bright spark thought OMD 90 was a suitable substitute for proper hydraulic oil.
👍
doubt it, this will probably be a minimum viable update, engine refresh etc.
Sadly true
If this is based on a CH2 chassis, why not slap the new CH3 turret on it and buy new engineering vehicles?
That’s just silly when there are many CH2 hulls sitting around.
And what would you even base the new vehicles off of.
Where are there lots of CH2 hulls “sitting around” Hugo?
They literally just pulled like 60 out of storage
There are a lot more than they are planning to convert the army has about 260 odd stashed away.
Look in Ashchurch!
Long story short, the CR2-CR3 upgrade is very cheap, and the government isn’t willing to throw money at upgrading the tanks in long term storage that aren’t in good condition.
This would not be wise as spare challenger 2 hulls exist, both hulls very different from each other and the Challenger 2 apart from running gear. Engines are also larger with additional hydraulic fan cooling systems for hydraulics. .
Looking at the top photo I noticed the red triangles which usually denote unarmoured so is that one of the prototypes?
Nope your correct,TES fitted for operations👍
A good little order, if well overdue as Graham says. We will at least retain some of the bare bones of a tracked armoured infantry Division, with some Chall 3, Titan and Trojan. And the CRARRV REME version, which is an older Chally 1 vehicle that soldiers on, no doubt due to the efforts of our excellent REME arm.
Just need to get these botched Ajax stripped down, rejigged and the contract switched from GD to anyone who can actually make a decent tracked armoured vehicle out of it. However, with a plethora of civil servants and accountants running the show, hand in hand with the hapless D&ES, I fear another cheap bodge-up or outright cancellation.
Sensible to upgrade them and to keep them for the near future.
Maybe we should get Rhienmetal to look at the Ajax money pit.
They’ll just try to sell us Puma or something
12 months forecast to sign a contract on a single source basis with an established Vendor for an upgrade project ( for which it assume upgrade scope is known)….astonishing.
Some small but good news, we have 2x more enginer vehicles than we do SP Arty, its ok though we did order one RCH 155mm so now we will have 15 SPG’s