ArmChairCivvy wrote:RunningStrong wrote:That's not to say I would scrap Scimtar 2, it certainly has it's place on the battlefield.
Anyone know who is going to operate them? Or will the specialist versions be sprinkled all over the place? I guess the mix of the recce/ fire support vs other versions within the 50-60 total never became clear?
Has this become any clearer since (the above quote from) 2016? BAE literature says
"Capability Enhancement also involves a number of upgrades to the vehicle’s protection, taking it to an intermediate level. These include: – Ceramic ballistic armour: for KE threats"
AND
"The project has seen the next generation of CVR(T) variants – Scimitar Mk2, Spartan Mk2, Sultan Mk2, Samaritan Mk2 and Samson Mk2 – enter service in Afghanistan in 2011."
My two main points of interest:
Samaritan in all-tracked units; did it also get the KE protection enhancements?
Scimitar; where are they, as they could be got to places where no other protected fire support AFVs can be made available (fast enough, e.g. underslung)
Perhaps the 50-60 I quoted at the time related to Scimitar2 only (there were export hopes for that variant) as a total of appr. hundred across all variants has also been mentioned
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)