The Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) joint venture has provided a new update on the British Army’s Challenger 3 programme, with Pre-series vehicles 3 and 4 recently completing commissioning in readiness for field trials.
Announcing the step on social media on 19 December 2024, RBSL said the two latest prototype Challenger 3 main battle tanks (MBT) will be “put through their paces” in a test plan, which will mirror trials already performed by the first two Pre-series platforms.
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An additional four Pre-series vehicles would “soon join the fleet”, ahead of an eventual move to full-rate production.
However, it will be several years before the British Army is able to field the platforms on operations, with an initial operating capability (IOC), effectively the equipping of a full MBT squadron, not due to be met until 2027 at the earliest.
A total of 148 of the British Army’s approximate 200 Challenger 2 MBTs are due to be upgraded, with early prototypes having undergone firing trials in Germany in May 2024.
However, persistent messaging by the UK government of fiscal problems and recent cuts to defence capability could lay the scene for a reduction in Challenger 3 MBTs in 2025, when the Strategic Defence Review is announced.
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By GlobalDataChallenger 3 a halfway house to Leopard 2 series?
Upgrades from the Challenger 2 MBT include the L55A1 smoothbore gun from Rheinmetall, a new turret with multiple day and night sensors, an active protection systems, new modular armour, and improved power generation and suspension.
Programming to cost around £1.3bn ($1.62bn) in 2021, should expenditure remain on track it will mean an outlay of £8.8m on each Challenger 2 upgraded to the Challenger 3 variant.
By comparison, a recent Czech deal for additional Leopard 2A4 MBTs came to around $11m per tank, a price similar to a 2023 deal that saw Denmark and the Netherlands acquire 14 Leopard 2A4 tank for Ukraine, at a cost of $172.9m.
Converted to dollars, each Challenger 3 upgrade will cost about $11.2m, or as much as an entire Leopard 2A4.
By the time the programme reaches IOC the average age of the vehicles on which the upgrade will be based will be around 27 years old, with the Challenger 3 tanks expected to serve until 2040, when the base platforms will have been in service for over 40 years.
Full operating capability is not expected to be achieved until 2030.
This means that Challenger 3 will be a decade-long stopgap until a next-generation European platform becomes available, at which point the UK will almost certainly look to join a multinational effort.
This will see the end of tank design in the UK, as its industrial base shifts to license built MBTs or outright off-the-shelf acquisition from a European country.
