Light infantry brigades and an air-assault brigade would round out the roughly 100,000-strong army, allowing it to form two divisions.īut it’s an uneven force with an uncertain future. Under the Strike concept, the army would have two brigades with Ajax and Boxer and two brigades with Challenger 2 and Warrior. The army came up with a force design that leveraged its new medium vehicles. “Another home truth was that the army would never have the mass to match the conventional might of Russia or China. “Whatever the army thought it ought to do, it was told there was no money,” Drummond explained.

But the British Army idled-and not by choice. Many NATO armies launched crash programs to upgrade their tanks and fighting vehicles. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 underscored the enduring value of heavy armor. The Warrior upgrade likewise has yet to enter production. It could be years before the first upgraded Challenger 2 enters service-assuming it ever happens. Defense Ministry has yet to select a supplier for the tank upgrade. Soldiers cleaning the rifled barrel of a Challanger 2 tank after a live-firing session.

Modern british light tanks