{"id":263499,"date":"2023-01-11T07:40:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T07:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=263499"},"modified":"2023-01-12T08:04:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T08:04:15","slug":"what-is-the-british-challenger-2-battle-tank-that-could-be-sent-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=263499","title":{"rendered":"What is the British Challenger 2 battle tank that could be sent to Ukraine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sky News \u2013 Jan 9, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The UK is considering sending some of its British tanks to Ukraine, in what would be a significant development and a signal to Kyiv’s allies around the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Sky News exclusively revealed that Rishi Sunak’s government is considereing\u00a0providing Challenger 2s to be used by Ukrainian forces<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on the battlefield against Russia.<\/p>\n

If it goes through, the move would make the UK the first country to send Western-made main battle tanks to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

But what are Challenger 2 tanks and which other Western armoured vehicles are being sent to Ukraine?<\/p>\n

Challenger 2: British tank buster that has “never” been destroyed by the enemy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The British Challenger 2 is a main battle tank that has been used on operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq.<\/p>\n

First introduced into service with the British Army in 1994, a number of Challenger 2s are currently deployed in Estonia as part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltic States.<\/p>\n

It features a main 120mm rifled gun and has a crew of four – commander, gunner, loader\/operator and a driver.<\/p>\n

The British Army says it has “never experienced a loss at the hands of the enemy”.<\/p>\n

Bradley fighting vehicle: Armoured infantry transport from the US<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Bradley armoured vehicles. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week the White House announced that it will be delivering 50 of its Bradley fighting vehicles to Ukraine as well as 500 of the anti-tank missiles they can fire.<\/p>\n

While not a tank, strictly speaking, Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said they provide “a level of firepower and armour that will bring advantages on the battlefield”.<\/p>\n

Bradleys are armoured vehicles that can transport infantry in combat zones and are often equipped with a 25mm M242 Bushmaster chain gun as their main weapon along with an anti-tank missile system.<\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the latest US announcement of military aid: “For the first time, we will get Bradley armoured vehicles – this is exactly what is needed.<\/p>\n

“New guns and rounds, including high-precision ones, new rockets, new drones. It is timely and strong.”<\/p>\n

Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Germany said on Friday it wants to deliver around 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine before the end of March.<\/p>\n

It comes as the country – criticised by some for being slower than others in providing military aid to Kyiv – ramps up its support.<\/p>\n

Resembling a light tank in some ways, the Marder can carry five or six troops and is one of the largest and heaviest of its type.<\/p>\n

Germany has large numbers of Marders in storage and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Berlin could ultimately send its entire functioning fleet of the weapons.<\/p>\n

AMX-10 RC: France’s ‘light tank’ designed for recon missions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>The French defence ministry said last week that it will hold talks with its Ukrainian counterpart to arrange for the delivery of armoured combat vehicles.<\/p>\n

Designated as “light tanks” in French, the AMX-10 RC carries a 105mm cannon and two machine guns.<\/p>\n

It’s primarily designed for reconnaissance missions and has enough armour to protect against light infantry weapons, according to the French defence ministry.<\/p>\n

It has wheels rather than tracks, allowing it to be more mobile than heavy tanks.<\/p>\n

What about Germany’s Leopard 2 main battle tanks?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ukraine has long been calling for the West to send tanks to help its forces fight Russia, and at the top of the list has been the Leopard 2.<\/p>\n

Considered a main battle tank in the same way as the Challenger 2 and first introduced in 1979, it is offers good protection against armour-piercing rounds and anti-tank guided weapons.<\/p>\n

It has been reported that the Leopard 2 was estimated to be able to penetrate frontal armour of the Soviet-made T-72 tank from 2,000 metres away and that of the T-62 from more than 4,000 metres – both of which are in use by the Russian military in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Germany’s decision to send Marders to Ukraine has raised hopes that the heavier Leopard could be next, but a government spokesperson said on Monday that there are no current plans to do so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britain is reportedly considering sending Challenger II tanks to Ukraine. If it does it will join French AMX light tanks, US Bradleys and German Marder armoured fighting vehicles. In other words the West is throwing everything it can to fuel the conflict in the Ukraine in an effort to weaken Russia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":252879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263499"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263502,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263499\/revisions\/263502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/252879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}