Future Army Structure Next Steps

The head of the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt has announced a number of changes to the structure of the army to better cope with the current strategic need (i.e. fighting insurgents) and also to try and retain experienced soldiers. The army's brigades will be reduced from 10 to 6 which will also be 4000 men each, larger than before. These changes will allow for greater time between combat operations which is hoped will reduce the strain on service personnel and their families.


Now what was this you said about me having to go back again already?

Under the new structure brigades will consist of "a battalion of Challenger 2 tanks, one of armoured reconnaissance, an armoured infantry battalion in Warriors, a mechanised infantry battalion in Bulldog armoured vehicles and two "light role" infantry battalions."

Insurgents driving the development of MBTs?

Whilst reading up on some new equipment and updates being procured by the British Army i found that the army's Challenger 2 MBT (Main Battle Tank) will be receiving a number of armour and weapon updates. Nothing is new in that of course, tanks are always under development and like all military equipment there is a constant effort to improve faster than your enemy can. However in the past what drove MBT development was other MBTs.

Tanks like the Challenger 2 were designed for World War 3 and tank battles against the Soviet Union. The need to kill Soviet tanks is what drove development of the tank. However since the end of the Cold War the prospect of epic tank battles across Central Germany has pretty much disappeared. In the 2 wars against Iraq the Challenger 2 mostly faced much older Soviet-era tanks like the T-55.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein however tanks have been used to support ground forces fighting the insurgency and this seems to be driving MBT development now. The Challenger 2 has had armour upgrades especially at the front to improve protection against IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) e.g. road side bombs. The tank has also had an extra machine gun fitted atop the turret that can be fired remotely from within the protection of the tank (though just for development at the moment). Such an extra gun is not really aimed at fighting other tanks but another anti-insurgent measure. Other armour upgrades have sought to improve protection against rocket propelled grenades. The tank has had to develop to combat not the latest cutting edge Soviet design but pretty low-tech but insurgents with no lack of courage or ingenuity.





Images from MOD Image Database
Republished from my general tech blog