Army’s ‘embarrassingly’ small tank fleet would last two weeks in war with Russia
The British Army’s “embarrassingly” small tank fleet would be wiped out in two weeks in a war with Russia, a former senior officer has warned.
Lt Col Stuart Crawford, who served in the Royal Tank Regiment, also claimed that the parlous state of the Armed Forces meant that it was no longer regarded as a “Tier One military power” by the United States.
His comments follow those of General Sir Richard Shirreff, who earlier this week said that troop and equipment shortages meant that the Army would struggle to put a war-fighting brigade of 5,000 troops into the field.
Lt Col Crawford, who served in the Army for 20 years and is now a defence analyst, described the new Challenger 3, which is due to come into service by 2030, as a “decent vehicle” but stressed that the numbers being built were too small.
He said: “We’re currently planning to procure only 148 of them [Challenger 3], which is embarrassingly few, when you remember that at the height of the Cold War, not that long ago, the British Army’s Royal Armoured Corps could hope to field around 900 MBTs [main battle tanks].
“No wonder some US senior officers have said that Britain is no longer a Tier One military power.”
Writing in the UK Defence Journal, he added: “One hundred and forty eight is about sufficient to equip two armoured regiments plus reserve and training vehicles. It’s laughably small.
“In Ukraine the Russians have lost roughly 3,000 tanks in just over two years.
“So 148 main battle tanks might last about a fortnight in intensive combat, if we’re lucky, and after that there will be no replacements. If there’s one lesson to come out of the current conflict in Ukraine, it’s that you need lots of stuff, to use the correct technical term, and clearly 148 tanks ain’t going to cut it.”
Sir Richard, who served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in 1997 Britain could field a war-fighting division of 20,000 well-equipped troops.
But he said that a decade of cuts had left the Army “decimated”, which now required “real emergency treatment” .
‘Ammunition in short supply’
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, he said; “I don’t think the British Army can field a war-fighting brigade of 5,000 without an enormous amount of time – I think even that would be really, really difficult.
“I’m sure the MoD would say yes of course we can do that. I can tell you now most of the units training on Salisbury Plain will be training without their full complement of vehicles for various reasons.
“Ammunition is in critical short supply. Amongst other things, of course, the bottom of the barrel has been scraped to provide everything that can go to Ukraine but it needs to be replaced. It needs to be topped up and on top of that we need to increase the size of our capability to meet the challenges posed by Russia.”
The MoD has been approached for comment.
