Britain is rolling out its retired Challenger 2 tanks to take part in NATO’s biggest military exercise since the Cold War, as the threat of all-out conflict with Russia continues to loom.
More than fifty British tanks are heading to Eastern Europe to take part in the biggest NATO war games in a generation, which will see 90,000 troops from across the alliance carry out exercises over four months.
The majority of the tanks will be transported by rail from Britain through the Channel Tunnel, while a dozen aging Challenger 2s will be brought out of storage in Germany to take part in the exercise.
They will join hundreds of armored vehicles loaded onto cargo ships and sent to the continent to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender earlier this week.
It comes as Estonia has warned that Vladimir Putin’s forces are preparing for a military confrontation with the West that could last a decade, with European states eager to build up their armed forces to deter the Russian threat.
Britain has already sent fourteen of its Challenger 2s to Ukraine. In the photo: one of the tanks at a secret location near the front line in the Zaporizhia region, on February 12
Military vehicles, including trucks and support vehicles, are loaded onto freighters bound for Europe
The Baltic state’s foreign intelligence service said in its annual report on Tuesday that NATO could face “a Soviet-style mass army that, while technologically inferior to allies, poses a significant threat due to its size, firepower and reserves.”
“While Russia’s vast human resources – reduced to cannon fodder – have not been able to conduct large-scale offensive operations in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s war machine still has ample fuel,” the report warned.
Although Russia is not explicitly mentioned in relation to the ongoing exercises, NATO considers Russia to be the main direct threat to the security and peace of its members in Europe.
Captain Greg Jardine, 32, operations officer at Marchwood, where armored vehicles have been loaded to head to Germany and then Poland this week, said the changing situation in Europe means Steadfast Defender is necessary.
Capt Jardine said: ‘It’s an unprecedented format compared to our usual exercises… It’s an escalation in tempo in our training and that comes down to the exercise.
“We are not in a situation where we expect to go to war anytime soon, but the situation in Europe has changed.”
The Challenger 2 tanks brought out of storage for the exercises will not require much maintenance to get them ready for exercises, a military source said. The times.
The mothballed tanks are being stored in Germany, where 20,000 British troops were stationed until they were withdrawn in 2020. An equipment fleet is maintained to enable the British Armed Forces to train in Europe.
Spearhead Battalion practiced short-term exercises in January in their role as the infantry core of NATO’s Spearhead Battlegroup
Britain has already sent 14 Challenger 2s to Ukraine, where the tanks have proven invaluable in helping Kiev defeat invading Russian forces.
The £5 million war machine, with a 120mm rifled cannon and a 7.62mm machine gun, is a main battle tank designed to attack other tanks.
It is Britain’s only guaranteed 24-hour, all-weather mobile tank, protected against accurate direct fire and anti-tank maneuvers, the British Army said.
The tank entered service in the 1990s and many are now being upgraded to extend their usefulness until 2040.
It has been described by British military commanders as a modern tank that is ‘much better protected, more reliable and faster’ than Soviet-era Russian tanks.
Britain has 213 tanks, while Russia has 1,750, although Putin’s war chest has been severely damaged by his protracted war in Ukraine.
This week it emerged that Kremlin forces have lost more than 3,000 tanks during their illegal war in Ukraine – more than their entire pre-war inventory.
Russia has relied mainly on its Soviet-era T-72 tanks, which were destroyed by the hundreds during the two-year war.
Moscow has also deployed hundreds of its advanced T-90 tanks in Ukraine, which should be among the best tanks in the world, albeit in much smaller numbers than the T-72s.
While Russia has suffered heavy losses on the battlefield, Putin’s top adviser to Britain said this week that it “cannot be defeated” because of the vast country’s significant resources.
Moscow has also drafted more conscripts and replenished its battlefield forces, and has new armored vehicles and a steady supply of artillery from its allies North Korea and Iran. Drones are also used extensively.
There are concerns among Western military leaders that Putin could next turn his sights to NATO’s eastern flank and countries that – such as Ukraine – were once behind the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain.
The ‘unprecedented’ operation comes after it emerged that Vladimir Putin’s forces have lost more than 3,000 tanks during their illegal war in Ukraine.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps warned last month that the world is “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world” and that Britain must ensure its “entire defense ecosystem is ready.”
The German chancellor warned this week that Europe must ‘urgently’ increase ‘mass production of weapons’.
“This is urgently needed because the painful reality is that we are not living in times of peace,” he said.
The diplomatic push across the continent comes next Donald Trump, who is leading the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 elections, said earlier this week that he did not believe European countries were paying enough money to NATO.
At a campaign rally in South Carolina, the former president said Saturday that he had told the leader of a “major” European power that he would not intervene if Russia attacked an ally that failed to meet its financial obligations.
‘No, I wouldn’t protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want,” Trump told his supporters.
President Joe Biden – who has pledged rock-solid support for the alliance – called his likely opponent’s comments in November’s presidential election “terrible and dangerous.”
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg issued a strong rebuttal to Trump, saying: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all our security, including that of the US.”
A senior NATO diplomat, like others on condition of anonymity, called the comment an “attack on the soul of the alliance” as it cast doubt on the Article 5 pledge to protect an ally if attacked.
Moscow’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 has already prompted European countries to increase their defense budgets.
With the large-scale invasion in 2022, NATO changed the two percent spending obligation into a floor instead of a ceiling.
The commitment was made in 2014 and currently only 11 out of 31 Member States are meeting the target.