dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Left to rot in sheds, our equipment is either ancient, non-existent or yet to arrive, while ammunition stocks would not last a week if push came to shove, says defence expert Francis Tusa

Thursday 20 February 2025 21:08 GMT

When news that the UK would be at the front of the queue to provide troops for a Ukraine peacekeeping force, possibly as many as 20,000, a contact from army headquarters at Andover messaged me: “Where’s this 20,000-figure come from? Who’s briefing this? We couldn’t do this in a month of Sundays!”

The next few days saw this “offer” drop to 10,000 to 12,000 troops for the as-yet-unspecified ground force – but the panic among army planners was much the same: there has been no requirement for such a deployment, the army is not set up for such numbers and has not been funded to do so.

And, worse, the army is at a nadir as regards its capability to provide robust, capable, war-fighting forces of the type that would be needed for Ukraine – equipment is either ancient, non-existent, yet-to-arrive; ammunition stocks would not last a week if push came to shove; and communications systems are old and flaky.

It might not go too far to suggest that the British army is at its lowest nadir since June 1940, after Operation Dynamo saw the British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk.

Now, the main battle tank (MBT) force is at a disastrous low. The Challenger 2 fleet (just over 400 were bought in the 1990s) has a notional strength of 213 tanks, after 14 were donated to Ukraine. However, these have been at the receiving end of “malign neglect” – maintenance regimes slashed in the 2000s and 2010s, spares not purchased, and supply chains disappearing as companies went bust. In 2023, it was reported that only around 160 of the fleet was in any fit state to be used on operations (after extensive, expensive work) – and the situation got worse.

The end result? The Royal Armoured Corps has not been able to deploy a realistic Challenger 2 regiment of 59 tanks for many years. Lack of available Challenger 2s has meant that the army’s ambition for MBTs has been at the 20 to 25 level, at the very best.

When Denmark and Sweden have more credible tank forces than the United Kingdom, you know there’s an issue. And, as the Ukraine war has shown, tanks do have a major role, especially if a peacekeeping force were to be a credible deterrent.

The Royal Artillery used to have a force of over 100 self-propelled AS90 artillery pieces. But much like the Challenger 2 fleet, this had been left to rot, with only a handful available even for training. Just before Covid, I sat next to a lieutenant colonel who was taking over an AS90 regiment: “I have 24 guns in the shed, no tracks, no engines. I will have to do a lot of work to stop morale falling.” That was over five years ago, and, again, the issues of no spares and defunct supply chains have not made this situation any better.

At least 32 AS90 have been gifted to Ukraine – an entirely sensible move. But this has left the army with little to no artillery. An interim batch of 14 Swedish Archer 155mm guns has been bought – but this is an incredibly limited number. And if the Ukraine War has shown us anything, artillery is still the queen of the battlefield. A British force deployed to Ukraine would need substantially more artillery, or would lack credibility.

And even assuming that the army could deploy 12 Archers as part of a Ukraine ground force (24 to 36 is what would be needed, at least), to make them credible they’d need the ammunition stocks.

More:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-army-troops-ukraine-defence-b2701635.html

>>24987159

>>24987187

Gets far more pussy than any Prius ever will

>>24987199

Be gone no titty having freak!

>>24987229

>>24987264

QAnon is a media invention so ask Rachel Madcow or somebody at CNN