The announcement of the delivery of French AMX-10RC light tanks to Ukraine visibly opened a breach… as the United States and Germany then pledged to supply infantry fighting vehicles [VCI] M2 Bradley and Marder to the Ukrainian Army. And also Poland and Finland are considering doing the same thing… but with Leopard 2 tanks…. A perspective that Berlin has so far ruled out. As, by the way, Washington … Kyiv has not come up to date on the Abrams tanks.
But that could change soon… At least if London confirms its intention to donate at least ten Challenger 2 tanks to the Ukrainian army. Either enough to arm a squadron. If that doesn’t seem like much, the aim would be to encourage other NATO member countries to do the same… and Germany in particular.
This project to deliver Challenger 2 to Ukraine was mentioned by Sky News channel on January 9th. According to the latter, citing sources familiar with the matter, talks on the matter have been going on “for a few weeks”.
“Rishi Sunak’s government has not yet made a final decision, but if Britain agrees to such a delivery, it would be the first country to heed calls from the Ukrainian leadership to equip its army with powerful Western tanks,” Sky News stresses.
An announcement could be made at the next meeting of the group of fifty countries providing military support to Ukraine on January 20.
In any case, the British government has neither confirmed nor denied the information from Sky News. The UK “has committed by 2023 to match or exceed the amount of military aid provided to Ukraine in 2022,” a spokesman commented. “To date, we have delivered more than 200 armored vehicles to Ukraine, including Stormer vehicles armed with Starstreak missiles,” he recalled.
According to the latest British Strategic Review, the British Army should only keep 148 heavy main battle tanks out of the 225 it currently has. And this to bring them up to Challenger 3 standards. For the moment, that plan has not changed… and 77 examples will therefore eventually be withdrawn from service.
In service since 1994, the 62.5 ton Challenger 2 is mainly armed with a 120mm L30A1 rifle cannon, which is not compatible with standard NATO ammunition. This can be a supply problem for Ukrainians.