British Army News and Discussion

It is being reported that the British Army will be buying the RCH155 wheeled artillery to be co-developed by Germany and UK. While it is still early days, one question will be whether AS90 will be retained only for armoured brigades. The other question is how quickly will the interim buy of 14 Archer SPHs be retired.

Wheels for SPH, tracks for MRL. That's real something.

News - Watchkeeper UAV to retire

A classic sad story of British military procurement. Buy an existing product, then spend a fortune & many years modifying it before finally putting it into service, by which time it looks distinctly old-fashioned & only lasts a few years in service.

And everything requires new facilities! Often, a new factory for the new product, & the training of a new workforce.

swerve said:

News - Watchkeeper UAV to retire

A classic sad story of British military procurement. Buy an existing product, then spend a fortune & many years modifying it before finally putting it into service, by which time it looks distinctly old-fashioned & only lasts a few years in service.

And everything requires new facilities! Often, a new factory for the new product, & the training of a new workforce.

Click to expand...

|"It is one of several platforms that are being sunset early to save money ahead of the UK's upcoming Strategic Defense Review."|

And they claim this is all to save money....

swerve said:

News - Watchkeeper UAV to retire

A classic sad story of British military procurement. Buy an existing product, then spend a fortune & many years modifying it before finally putting it into service, by which time it looks distinctly old-fashioned & only lasts a few years in service.

And everything requires new facilities! Often, a new factory for the new product, & the training of a new workforce.

Click to expand...

We really do need to let go of that special snowflake feeling that seems to overcome purchasing so often and just buy something that works as nearly off the shelf as possible. Stuff like Ajax and Boxer flip flop really do stick in my craw, as it were.

Yeah. We should have bought Boxer from the start. Quitting the programme, faffing around with other types, then rejoining, cost a bloody fortune.

So Starmer offers troops on the ground

Most of what I read online suggest the British Army does not have the numbers needed to sustain a presence (with rotation) for long duration.

koxinga said:

So Starmer offers troops on the ground

Most of what I read online suggest the British Army does not have the numbers needed to sustain a presence (with rotation) for long duration.

Starmer 'ready' to put UK troops on ground in Ukraine to protect peace

Sir Keir Starmer said securing a lasting peace in Ukraine was "essential" to deter Vladimir Putin from future aggression.

www.bbc.com

The state we are in - British Army decline

Here's one contentious view of the state of the British Army decline. Do you agree? Were things really better in the past?

wavellroom.com

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The British army isn't alone wrt this problem. Canada certainly has!

The UK maintained a force of around 10,000 at longer distances over an air bridge in Afghanistan - and we're just talking a trip-wire force in Ukraine - not conducting daily COIN and force protection for example.

Stick a few thousand French and UK troops in there and Russia is facing two nuclear armed nations with the capability to escalate conventionally in ways Russia can't cope with.

If we can get everyone to stop shooting each other, it's doable.

Well I suppose that is one way to deal with a recruitment shortfall. Maybe the British Army should add a second Gurkha Brigade?

It is being reported, on the Army Technology site, that the British army no longer operates the AS-90 SPH. As no source is attributed for this report this casts some doubt on its accuracy. If the report is accurate then the British artillery has been reduced to 14 Archer SPH until the RCH155 SPH starts to enter service in 2030 (if it remains on schedule). The Archer SPHs are also supposed to be retired in 2030. The big question is what has happened to the 50-ish AS-90 SPH that remained after 32 were donated to Ukraine.

An overview of British Army vehicles at DSEI 2025, including Challenger 3, Ajax and Boxer by Times Radio.

OldTex said:

It is being reported, on the Army Technology site, that the British army no longer operates the AS-90 SPH. As no source is attributed for this report this casts some doubt on its accuracy. If the report is accurate then the British artillery has been reduced to 14 Archer SPH until the RCH155 SPH starts to enter service in 2030 (if it remains on schedule). The Archer SPHs are also supposed to be retired in 2030. The big question is what has happened to the 50-ish AS-90 SPH that remained after 32 were donated to Ukraine.

Click to expand...

Britain sent all of it’s remaining AS-90’s to Ukraine. It presently has 14 Archers and there was some discussion about boosting these by another 10 platforms.

They also operate somewhere around 126x L118 105mm guns and 44x M270 MLRS systems, which are growing reportedly up to around 85x vehicles upgraded to the M270A2 variant and fitted with new types of munitions.

RCH155 has been selected as the AS-90 replacement, though there is a bit of a squabble over delivery timelines etc, I understand.

It was reported a year ago that the British army had acquired secondhand M270 launchers, & was having them refurbished & modernised. Numbers in this article are a little unclear, saying "an additional 31 M270 MLRS launch vehicles have now been acquired", but also "In addition, a further two risk reduction launchers are currently on the production line, and a total of 61 M270s are on order, with a further 15 M270 MLRS expected to go on contract in 2025 to meet the British Army’s requirements of 76 platforms." Perhaps "on order" includes existing launcher vehicles under contract to be upgraded.
British Army to surge M270 MLRS fleet to over 70 vehicles - Army Technology

This more recent story has the same numbers (61 & 15), of which 61 on order, but "This latest contract includes the final batch of launchers for the British Army" isn't explicit about whether it means all of the 15 being considered.

But whatever, it's a lot more than the 29 said to be in service last year.