British Army: News

UK to acquire US light armored vehicles JLTV

On July 10, 2017, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) sent a notice to the US Congress about the forthcoming sale of 2747 JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicles) to the United Kingdom through foreign military sales (FMS) With the wheel formula 4x4 produced by Oshkosh Defense. The sale is authorized by the US Department of State. The estimated cost of supply is $ 1,035 billion.



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The first upgraded Warrior 2 infantry fighting vehicles were transferred to the British Army

According to "Jane's Defense Weekly" magazine in the article Samuel Cranny-Evans "IAV 2018: Warrior 2 delivered for armor trials", at the International Armored Vehicles (IAV) conference in London from January 22 to 25, 2018, the representative of Lockheed Martin Corporation reported , that the British branch of the corporation (Lockheed Martin UK) handed over to the British army the first eight Warrior infantry vehicles upgraded to the level of Warrior 2. All eight cars entered the testing program for the armored British Army Armored Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) in Dorset .



Within the framework of the Warrior Capability Sustainment Program (WCSP), it is planned to modernize 380 units from 789 Warrior infantry vehicles received by the British army from 1987 to 1995. Of this number, 245 line and command vehicles are planned to be upgraded to the Warrior 2 level under the Warrior Fightability Lethality Improvement Program (WFLIP) subroutine, providing for the installation of a new tower with a 40mm CTA International CT40 automatic cannon with telescopic ammunition and a 24-hour fire control system.

The contract for R & D under the WFLIP modernization program worth £ 200 million was awarded in March 2011 on a competitive basis by Lockheed Martin UK, the developer of the tower (which is being implemented by capitalizing the original Warrior BMP tower) and the fire control system and in general the system integrator. The cost of upgrading 245 machines under the WFLIP program was previously set at 642 million pounds, but could actually exceed 1 billion pounds. Works on serial upgrading should be carried out on the group belonging to Babcock belonging to the former military armored vehicle repair plant in Donnington. Serially upgraded BMP Warrior 2 should begin to flow into the combat units of the British Army in 2020, and are expected to be in operation until 2040.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3067563.html

Great Britain again joins the program of the Boxer armored personnel carrier

The British Department of Defense on March 31, 2018 reported that it had decided to rejoin the GTK Boxer wheeled German-Dutch wheeled vehicle program, from which the UK withdrew in 2003. A statement from the UK Department of Defense states that "The United Kingdom will again join the Boxer program and consider options for equipping the army with 8x8 armored personnel carriers for upgrading its fleet of armored vehicles and meeting Army requirements under the Mechanized Infantry Vehicle (MIV) program."

This decision actually predetermines the purchase of BTR Boxer for the British Army under the MIV program instead of holding a wide international competition for this program.



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Problems of recruiting infantry units of the British Army

According to Tim Ripley’s Analysis of the British Army’s infantry units suffering from 12% shortfall in personnel, Jane’s Defense Weekly reports that the British army faces a serious shortage of non-commissioned and noncommissioned officers in infantry units. According to the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, promulgated on September 20, 2018 in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), a shortage of personnel in the regular infantry battalions of the British army (which now numbers 29, excluding two Gurkha battalions) by 1 July 2018 was 12.4% in relation to the regular number (in the whole of the British Army a shortage is 6.8%).



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UK buys Boxer armored personnel carriers

The Ministry of Defense of Great Britain on November 5, 2019 announced the signing of a contract worth £ 2.8 billion for the purchase of "more than 500" GTK Boxer armored personnel carriers with an 8x8 wheel arrangement of various modifications for the British army. The contract is signed with the European procurement Organization for Cooperation in the field of armaments (Organization for Joint Armament Cooperation - OCCAR). Deliveries should begin in 2023.




 The production of GTK Boxer armored personnel carriers is carried out by the German consortium Artec (now it combines Rheinmetall Defense and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann / KMW, now KNDS), and their implementation and maintenance are carried out as part of a joint program through OCCAR.

 Recall that the United Kingdom was originally a member of the tripartite (with the participation of Germany and the Netherlands) program for the creation of an armored personnel carrier GTK Boxer (MRAV), however, in 2003, the British Ministry of Defense withdrew from the project, explaining that the characteristics of the machine did not meet British requirements, including air transport. In March 2018, the British Department of Defense returned to the Boxer program as part of the OCCAR.

 Thus, then the United Kingdom made the final choice in favor of the purchase of Boxer APCs and finally abandoned the idea of ​​holding an international tender for the Mechanized Infantry Vehicle (MIV) procurement program for the British army of wheeled armored personnel carriers.

 After the UK left the Boxer program in 2003, the British Department of Defense launched an ambitious program for creating a new generation of Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) armored vehicles, the Utility Variant (FRES UV) wheeled armored personnel carrier subroutine was initially considered the main program. BTR Boxer was one of three candidates for the FRES UV routine, but General Dynamics Piranha V was announced victory in May 2008. But at the end of 2008, the British Department of Defense announced the suspension of the FRES UV routine and “restructuring” the entire FRES project in favor of Priority of the family of tracked platforms in the FRES Specialist Vehicle subroutine (as a result of which the General Dynamics Ajax family of tracked vehicles was created).

 Since 2013, the need for wheeled armored platforms was again put forward by the British army, now as a MIV program. The world's leading manufacturers of armored vehicles have already prepared for this expected new megatender - the consortium Artec (manufacturer of BTR Boxer), Nexter Systems (VBCI), General Dynamics (with the next version of Piranha), Lockheed Martin in partnership with Finnish Patria (AMV) have already announced their participation. BAE Systems (with a new project - possibly reincarnation of SEP projects), Iveco and Singaporean STK.

 In total, according to the MIV program, it is planned to purchase up to 900 armored vehicles with an 8x8 wheel formula for the British Army.

 According to a statement from the UK Department of Defense regarding the conclusion of a contract for the purchase of Boxer APCs, the first phase will be the purchase of four types of vehicles - a linear APC, a command post vehicle, a medical vehicle and an armament carrier. In the first stage, four motorized infantry battalions — two in two new British “strike” brigades (Strike Brigades) formed by the British Army — will be equipped with BTR Boxer (MIV) (in addition, each regiment will include two regiments for new tracked armored vehicles Ajax family).

 The detailed parameters of the signed Boxer purchase contract have not yet been announced, but the British Defense Department said earlier that the contract should provide for the ability to build and export vehicles from the UK, including the complete assembly of Boxer in the UK with at least 60% participation in the production of British industry,

 The Artec Consortium, which manufactures Boxer APCs, has already committed itself to the British industry by signing partnership agreements with BAE Systems, Pearson Engineering and Thales UK, pending the conclusion of the contract. British companies are expected to compete for the production and supply of many BTR subsystems, as well as for the organization of a complete production and assembly line in the UK. Estimates suggest that Artec's planned UK investment could provide or create at least 1,000 jobs. The Rolls-Royce group is already involved in the production of engines for Boxer, and British companies Parker-Hannifin, William Cook Engineering and others are also expected to be connected to the production of components.

 Under the proposed contract, the UK is also expected to receive significant investments from the Rheinmetall group, which has announced its intention to establish a center in the UK.


https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3829174.html

Great Britain received the first two AN-64E helicopters





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Contract for the modernization of British Challenger 2 tanks into the Challenger 3 variant

May 8th, 21:00
On May 7, 2021, the British Ministry of Defense announced the issuance of a contract worth about £ 800 million to the British joint venture Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL, formed by the German group Rgeinmetall and BAE Systems Corporation) for the modernization of 148 Challenger 2 main tanks of the British army into a new version of Challenger 3. . Image upgraded Challenger main tank 3 for the British army (s) Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL)

Recall that in September 2019, the British joint venture Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), created by the German group Rheinmetall and the BAE Systems corporation, presenteddemonstrator of a variant of the radical modernization of the British main tank Challenger 2 under the long-running Challenger 2 Life Extension Project (LEP) program of the British army. RBSL's proposal was to install a new turret on the tank with a 120 mm Rheinmetall Rh 120 L55A1 smoothbore tank gun (with a barrel length of 55 calibers), instead of the old turret with an outdated British L30A1 rifled gun. Then a full-fledged prototype of the modernized Challenger 2 tank was presented with a new turret with a 120-mm Rheinmetall Rh 120 L55A1 cannon. As a result, this modernization option is now chosen by the UK Department of Defense for implementation under the designation Challenger

3.FThe active developer of the new tower is Rheinmetall. The tower will be equipped with British-designed "new generation modular armor", a 120mm Rheinmetall Rh 120 L55A1 smoothbore tank gun and a remotely controlled machine gun module . In general, the Challenger 3 modernization project is very radical, so that from the old Challenger 2 tanks, in fact, only the hull remains, which is also modernized with increased frontal armor. Upgraded tank Challenger 3 will also be equipped with completely new fire control systems (duplicated), surveillance and communication, and digital electric drives. The ammunition load of the new 120-mm smoothbore gun will include the DM11 programmable high-explosive fragmentation round. Standard Perkins 1200 hp diesel engine. it is supposed to be replaced by a German MTU of 1500 hp. The suspension of the tank will be made with a new "hydropneumatic third generation". The tank should be equipped with an active protection complex, but KAZ will be purchased and installed under a separate contract. The combat weight of the Challenger 3 will be 66 tons.

The retrofits will take place at RBSL's UK facilities, headquartered in Telford. Supply of modernized tanksChallenger 3 in the British army will be carried out from 2027 to 2030.

Modernization projects for Challenger 2 tanks have been initiated in Great Britain several times since the official entry of these vehicles into service in 1998, revolving primarily around replacing the outdated 120-mm L30A1 rifled gun of these tanks with a smooth-bore one. However, for financial reasons, none of the proposals have so far reached implementation. Replacing a rifled gun with separate loading with a smooth-bore German Rheinmetall Rh 120 L44 / L55 with unitary shots required the creation of a new turret, which made the upgrade extremely expensive.

Only in December 2015 was launchedthe Challenger 2 Life Extension Project (LEP) limited modernization program, which was originally planned to be entirely focused on the modernization of "tower subsystems" (i.e. fire control, communications, information systems, etc.) without replacing weapons, and the costs of which were estimated from 624 to 700 million pounds. In December 2016, two proposals for limited modernization projects were selected in a tender for the LEP program - BAE Systems (in a consortium with General Dynamics UK) and German Rheinmetall - and the final choice of the project was supposed to be made in 2019. However, in July 2019, the UK Department of Defense decided to postpone the decision on the LEP program by at least two years (that is, until 2021) and conduct a complete reassessment of the program.

In fact, this reassessment boiled down to a desire to abandon the limited options for modernization and implement a more radical option with the replacement of the turret and gun. Apparently knowing this well, BAE Systems and Rheinmetall teamed up in 2019 under the RBSL with the aim of offering the British military department a radical version of the modernization of the tank with a new turret and gun, achieving success in the end.

The decision in favor of a radical and more expensive option for modernizing the Challenger 2 tank was ultimately chosen by the British Ministry of Defense by reducing the total number of modernized vehicles. In an official review published by the UK Department of Defense in March 2021in the field of defense and security, "Defense Command Paper" announced the decision to withdraw from service 77 of the 225 Challenger 2 tanks currently available in the British army, and to upgrade only the remaining 148 vehicles to the Challenger 3 version.

Recall that initially from 1994 to 2002, the British army was supplied with 386 Challenger 2 tanks and 22 training tanks. All of them were produced at tank factories in Elzwik and Leeds, which at that time belonged to Alvis (in 2004, together with the enterprises, they came under the control of BAE Systems). Another 38 tanks were manufactured for Oman in 1998-2001. According to the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR-2010) published in 2010, the number of Challenger 2 battle tanks in the British army was reduced to 225, while it was planned to keep them in service until 2035.

Now it is stated that the upgraded Challenger 3 tank will remain in service with the British army until at least 2040.

Speaking on May 7, 2021 at the presentation of the contract for the modernization of 148 British Army Challenger 2 main tanks into a new Challenger 3 variant at the RBSL facility in Telford, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said about Challenger 3: “This will be the deadliest tank in NATO, it can interact with all other elements of not only the army, but all other branches of the armed forces and increase the effectiveness of Great Britain in hostilities. "

The minister added that this "world-class tank" is better than Russian tanks because of the new gun. Pointing to the new Challenger 3 120mm smoothbore cannon, the British Secretary of Defense said, “This is why it is better than what the Russians have now. Because of this cannon, "and went on to say," the smoothbore cannon and its lethality plus its [Challenger 3] ability to increase strength by being able to negotiate with everyone on the battlefield. "




Prototype of the upgraded Challenger 3 (c) Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL)


Infographics with the main elements of modernization in the Challenger 3 variant of the UK Department of Defense




Prototype of the Challenger 3 tank at the presentation by the British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace of the contract for the modernization of 148 main tanks British Army Challenger 2 to Challenger 3 variant at RBSL in Telford

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