Land operations June 2021
Ajax labelled “unachievable” in leaked government document.
Nov 2021 Boris Johnson
declares tank battles in Europe a thing of the past.
Jan 2022
UK armed forces possess 227 main battle tanks.
Feb 24 2022
2023 First Boxers
scheduled to enter service in UK armed forces.
2030
148 Challenger 3s expected to reach full operation capability for armed forces.
The FV432 – an armoured personnel carrier first introduced into the British Army in the 1960s.
brigades, encompassing main battle tanks and a range of other mechanised options.
A challenging situation
Russian tanks enter Ukraine.
In June 2021, a leaked government report made some remarkable claims. The document claimed that successful delivery of Ajax, a new armoured vehicle programme costing £5.5bn, was likely “unachievable”. The machine that had been due to enter the field in 2023–4 inarguably suffers from some notable flaws. Chief among them are the noise and vibrations generated by its operation, so strong they make crew members nauseous. During tests, officials forced soldiers to stick to a speed limit of just 20mph – about half the actual top speed – apparently for health and safety reasons. That is shadowed by a number of other problems. Among other things, the vehicle, built by General Dynamics and meant to act as a lighter alternative to traditional main battle tanks, struggles to get over obstacles higher than 20cm. The Ajax debacle vividly speaks to the challenges facing the UK’s armoured force. As Robert Clark, defence fellow at the Henry Jackson Society puts it, “the longer this drags on, the costlier it will be for the government”. Yet, if spending cuts and diverted funds have done much to hollow out the country’s tanks, technical challenges have obviously hamstrung progress too. Beyond Ajax, there is also the example of Challenger 3. A revamp of the UK’s Challenger 2, they promise to provide more powerful guns, an autoloading system and a new turret. Yet here too, Drummond sees the potential for technical hitches. “The new turret is going to be heavier than the old turret – and yet they’re not increasing the power that the engine supplies,” he warns. “So, it will be a slower, more ponderous vehicle.” Nor is Drummond alone in his concerns. Aside from the tiny number of Challenger 3s forecasted – Whitehall envisages just 148 models will be made – other insiders are similarly frustrated by these and other compromises. As the prime minister’s old foe Tobias Ellwood put it in 2020:
“I don’t see a defence strategy here, I see a cost- cutting exercise.”
Of course, all this raises a question: given the UK’s distinguished martial history, what is the reason for this legacy of technical failure? A lack of resources is certainly a factor, but Drummond wonders whether poor strategic planning matters too. He accuses the British establishment of “navel-gazing” and prevaricating over various substandard options. Certainly, the UK’s anti-insurgency U-turn implies as much. Comparing the UK with its Nato allies does too. While London bureacrats stumbled through the 1990s and 2000s, their counterparts pushed ahead with ambitious new plans. Such a case is that of the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS). A partnership between Berlin and Paris, it blends a German hull with a lighter French turret. That means the tank may be able to traverse bridges that heavier machines are not able to, as well as having an improved 130mm cannon. In January 2021, the UK Ministry of Defence even began discussions to become ‘observers’ on the MGCS programme – opening the door to potentially adopting it in Britain.
The future in the crosshair What, then, does the future hold for Britain’s armour? Between Ajax and Challenger 3, the situation does not seem good. Yet, with the war in Ukraine finally focusing minds across the continent, the decades-long purging of the country’s military budget may finally be reversed. More specifically, Drummond does see a number of areas where planners are making good choices. One is a focus on digitalisation. Boris Johnson may have been naive to focus exclusively on cyber, but it is true that technology can improve the lives of tank crews. That is clear in Challenger 3’s digital open structure, which is enabling soldiers to share crucial data with nearby tanks.
This is bolstered by other high-tech features, notably active protection systems that put enemy anti-tank missiles off the scent. At the same time, the UK is also investing in other military vehicles that may finally make up for years of disappointment. Particularly relevant here is the Boxer. Described by the army as an “all-terrain armoured fighting vehicle” this vehicle will be able to barrel along at 64mph for over 650 miles. And though it lacks the firepower of a main battle tank, Boxers can nonetheless be fitted with everything from a 7.6mm light machine gun to a 30mm cannon. Even more importantly, Drummond – who acts an advisor to the German company building the Boxer, but speaks in a personal capacity – praises the fact that the Boxers are wheeled vehicles. That increases their reliability, as they can travel on the same rough ground as traditional tracked tanks. That is just as well. As the Russian military is quickly learning – to its misfortune – that securing flexible, reliable armour is worth it, unless you want to see it go up in smoke. ●
16 Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
Simon Annable/
Shutterstock.com
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