A significant part of the British Army’s Challenger 2 tanks are considered incapacitated. The newspaper reported Daily Mail on Wednesday, February 22.
According to the publication, less than 100 of the 227 military vehicles in service with the country can be considered combat-ready. 14 of them will be transferred to Ukraine as military support. Experts believe that Britain will experience a shortage of tanks for at least four years.
“We need to stop being introspective and get most of Challenger 2 up to a high degree of readiness in months. The Challenger 3 will not be available until 2027,” Mark Francois, a former junior secretary for the armed forces, told the newspaper.
On February 18, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that many countries found they did not have serviceable tanks to hand over to Kyiv. In addition, ammunition stocks also turned out to be insufficient. As Wallace noted, NATO countries “had to realize with pain” that their armies had been depleted over the past 30 years.
Earlier, on February 8, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to deliver Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine in March. He also stated that he does not exclude any option of military assistance to Kyiv.
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Kyiv against the backdrop of a special operation by the Russian Federation to protect Donbass, the decision on which was made against the backdrop of aggravation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
