sol wrote: ↑17 Nov 2023, 09:18
I guess KNDS know what is the best for the British Army and UK. And they are only saying that from the goodness of their heart not because they have horse in the race, right?
And where do Nicholas and KNDS are expecting money for 148 new tanks to come from? And for some 100 other support vehicles to replace Titan, Trojan and CRARRV? Previously Nicholas himself was saying that buying Leopard 2 as a replacement for CR2 was considered to expensive and there was no money for it, so is KNDS giving a hefty discount now? And who will pay for costs of training Ukrainians to operate CR2, plus maintenance all tanks sent to Ukraine, because UK is doing that now for 14 tanks sent to Ukraine, for more tanks those cost will rise up. And what about all money spent so far and all contracts signed for development of CR3? Just forget about it I guess.
And what the Army and the current tank craws are supposed to do till new tank arrive? There is no country that could leave enough Leopard 2 tanks to keep crews of all regular and TA tank units trained and at the same time provide enough tanks for NATO commitments in the Estonia. Even German Army is struggling to provide enough operational tanks for a single unit but I guess somehow they will be able to lease enough tanks to UK if they just buy lot of German tanks. Marvellous.
This discussion is completely pointless now, especially as first CR3 prototypes are expected to be delivered to the Army soon(-ish), in early 2024. Unless there is significant uplift in the budget for defence all this talk is complete nonsense.
I would tend to agree, there is no money for replacing the CH2, other than the slow moving CH3 rebuild, so it's nothing more than an interesting hypothetical conversation.
Re funding against current capabilities, it's all just treading water now as we wait for the next Government and the outcome of their inevitable SDSR.
They will no doubt have there own priorities, where our now neich MBT capability fits into that list is debatable.
I personally think that now it's been reduced to an almost redundant 2 Regiment basis, ( below minimum critical mass), it only has two directions to go, restored to 3 Regiments and returned to a minimum level of mass, or phased out completely by 2040.
Neich capabilities are always tempting low hanging fruit for government defence cuts...