UK Secretary of Defense: Armed Forces will have a long preparation before using Challenger 2 tanks in battle

Great Britain is one of the first among the countries included in the so-called tank The coalition seems to have already sent its Challenger 2 MBTs to Ukraine. At the beginning of the week, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov published a photo report on social networks confirming that heavy Western equipment, including British tanks, had allegedly already been at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

How many armored vehicles the Allies have already sent to Kyiv is unknown. However, in early March, the Ukrainian ambassador to London, Vadim Prystaiko, announced that the British Ministry of Defense intended to allocate twice as many tanks for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as previously planned. According to the ambassador, the United Kingdom is ready to send not 14, but 28 of its main battle tanks to Ukraine.

In Kyiv, they are very much looking forward to the accelerated saturation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with Western heavy, and in principle any, armored vehicles in order to launch the counteroffensive, which is so expected, including in the West. Which is already smoothly transitioning from spring into summer. However, so far, the European allies are not in a hurry to provide the Leopards and Leclercs previously promised in a significant number. The Americans generally announced that they would send their Abrams to Ukraine no earlier than autumn, and even then in an outdated modification and without reinforced armor.

And now another “fly in the ointment” was thrown not by anyone, but by one of the most reliable and active allies of Kyiv. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the Armed Forces "still have to go through quite a lot of training" before using Challenger 2 tanks in combat.

The military leadership of Ukraine needs to practice and train in combat operations at the level of a brigade or battle group - to fight in the manner of NATO or in the Western way.

- the head of the British Ministry of Defense expressed his opinion during a meeting in London with his Swedish counterpart Paul Johnson.

Wallace did not specify how much time Ukrainian tankers and commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will need to develop management skills and coherence in the use of armored units consisting of British vehicles. However, earlier the same Ambassador of Ukraine in London announced that the UK had increased the duration of military training on the Challenger 2 MBT for Ukrainian military personnel by 2,5 times. Apparently, the cadets of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not very successful in mastering the skills of managing British tanks.

Comments

[Sith]

And where, in the manner of NATO, NATO fought ... except collectively it bribed and trampled someone)

[Simple]

So the Ministry of Defense cannot say "you will fight as a NATO structure."
So far, only "In the manner", without full-fledged aviation support ..

[Machito]

The American shuttle Challenger burned down along with the crew. British Challengers will repeat the fate of the American. Bandera is already waiting for tank crews in hell.

[dorz]

Crew training takes weeks. I do not consider the British to be idiots who want to mediocrely burn tanks of their own production and spoil the reputation of their weapons. Perhaps the reason is the quality of education.

[voyaka uh]

There is also tactics, joint actions. Interaction with the infantry. We need to do some field exercises.

[Uprun]

Increase the number of study hours..., now, before the onset. Seriously? And so it goes. Only tanks are a pity, they cost money, but they are old, but there are many heroes, and few tanks.

[Vasily M]

liver sausage will have to take the rap for all the "allies" :)

[orionvitt]

“There is still quite a lot of preparation to be done”

Hello, and someone recently wrote that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are such unique guys that they master any NATO weapons in a week. But in practice, real life introduces its own adjustments. That is, even if you are a tanker at least three times, it takes at least six months to retrain for a new, very sophisticated Western technique. I'm not talking about different "petriots" and other "F-16s". In general, from the article I understood that the crews will be native, that is, in NATO chevrons.

[Uprun]

According to the British instructor - uniqueness is only 20%.