military wrote:1. The new tank should be upgradeable in another 15 years. This does not favour the Rheinmetall replacement of the CR2 turret, as this turret would be likely a boutique option for Britain and so a future upgrade would require new R&D.
What makes you think it's not upgradable?
2. Leopard 2A7 is said to have the same armour as the Leopard 2A5 from 1995. If true, this is an armour package that entered service three years before Challenger 2. This outdated armour puts Leopard 2 behind recent Russian tanks like T-72B3, T-90M and T-14. Some sort of armour upgrade would be needed, like Sweden and Switzerland did in the 1990s for Leopard 2, which might be cost prohibitive for Britain.
This is not true.
3. Ideally, an active protection system like Trophy would be included, although that is expensive.
There's already two separate APS programs in the UK regarding "main" vehicles. The only reason it hasn't been declared on which is the Army barely even knew what vehicles it'll definitely have. Pic below:
4. South Korea is proposing a new version of its Black Panther, called the K2PL, for Poland. The pictures released suggest added armour. I wonder if buying from South Korea instead of Germany would be cheaper and result in a better protected, more recent tank.
A core part of the Government is in demanding local industry, whether it's of a worthwhile amount or not. That would likely delay the program somewhat. Also, it's impossible to say "better protected" given the protection levels between the 2A7M level and K2PL level are utterly unknown to anyone not in the program itself.
5. The new Abrams SEP v3 may be the only western tank that has armour comparable to the top Russian tanks. It would likely be pricy for the UK to acquire.
What do you mean by "Top Russian tanks?" Also note that armour vs armour isn't a matter of "who has the most mm's", it's far more complex than that and often comes down to a better question of "can your armour resist their firepower while your firepower outmatches their armour?" which is a totally different set of affairs.
Tinman wrote:You do understand that the M1 uses British armour?
It doesn't. When the UK gave the US Burlington 1 long ago, GD has created several new armours since, using new research uniquely in the US. By this point it'll be unrecognisable to the original British designwork they were given.