Land systems
Three years on and£400m spent
Somewhere in the midpoint of the timelined upgrade of the old Challenger 2 tanks, the British Army is still years away from fielding the Challenger 3. Richard Thomas reports where things stood as the year ended.
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early three years on and £421m ($534.1m) from the initiation of the Challenger 3 programme, which will see 148 Challenger 2 main battle tanks (MBT) modernised, the British Army is still years away from receiving the first vehicle and initial operating capability (IOC). Initiated in April 2021 by then Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace, the Challenger 3 programme is intended to introduce a fourth generation MBT into the British Army, integrated new technologies into the existing Challenger 2 hull, including a new turret and 120mm smoothbore main gun. A total of 148 of the British Army’s approximate 200 Challenger 2 MBTs are due to be upgraded, with early prototypes having undergone firing trials in Germany in April 2024. By the time the programme reaches IOC, currently scheduled to be met in 2027, the average age of the vehicles on which the upgrade will be
based will be around 27 years old, with the Challenger 3 tanks expected to serve until 2040, when the base platforms are well over 40 years old. Full operating capability is not expected to be achieved until 2030. Programmed to cost around £1.3bn in 2021, should expenditure remain on track it will mean an outlay of £8.8m on each Challenger 2 upgraded to the Challenger 3 variant. By comparison, a Czech deal for additional Leopard 2A4 MBTs came to around $11m per tank, a price similar to a 2023 deal that saw Denmark and the Netherlands acquire 14 Leopard 2A4 tank for Ukraine, at a cost of $172.9m. Converted to dollars, each Challenger 3 upgrade will cost about $11.2m, or as much as an entire Leopard 2A4.
Challenger 3 timeline: government disclosures Army Technology provided a timeline highlighting some of the major disclosures from various UK governments since 2021 on the Challenger 3 programme, using answers taken from the official Hansard parliamentary written responses from Conservative officials at the MoD, and latterly Labour from mid-2024.
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
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JW.photography31/
Shutterstock.com
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