Since Britain’s Defence Ministry announced plans for the induction of the Challenger 3 battle tank into service later in the decade, a number of analysts and military enthusiasts have questioned whether this is an efficient way off improving British armoured warfare capabilities – or whether purchasing advanced variants of the Leopard 2 tank from Germany would be a better choice. The Challenger 3 is not an entirely new tank design, but an upgrade package for existing Challenger 2 tanks to bring their capabilities up to a more modern standard. The British Army will upgrade 65% of its Challenger 2 tanks to the Challenger 3 standard, while retiring the remaining 35%. This will leave it with a force of just 148 tanks, one of the very smallest in NATO, as the country focuses more on maritime and power projection assets. Improvements to the Challenger 2 will cost £800 million ($1 billion) for all tanks in service, or £5.4 million ($6.6 million) per tank, and will the integrate a new smoothbore cannon to replace the older rifled one, a new digitised turret, improved sights and upgraded protection. 

While the Leopard 2 has the advantage of still being in production, and of seeing greater investments in research and development to continuously upgrade its design, continued investment in the Challenger has many notable advantages over purchasing an ‘off the shelf’ German design. The Challenger 2 has had limited export successes, and approximately 40 are currently deployed by the Royal Army of Oman. The Challenger 3 upgrade package could potentially bee sold to Oman, which has long been a leading client for British arms. With the bulk of British Challenger 2 units in storage, these could potentially be refurbished and upgraded to the Challenger 3 standard for export if any party shows an interest. The cost and burden of abandoning the Challenger for a foreign design would also be significant, forcing the British Army not only to retrain on the new tank including both personal manning it as well as maintenance crews. It would also force the Army to remove all its existing maintenance infrastructure, and to source spare parts from abroad and thereby bring an end to the domestic industry for spare parts. The cost of purchasing new Leopard 2 tanks would also be significantly higher than £5.4 million ($6.6 million) per tank – the cost of the Challenger 3 upgrade package. 

One of the most evident drawbacks of shifting to the Leopard 2 is the loss of prestige as a major tank producer, with Britain having invented and been the first country to ever use battle tanks meaning its loss of the industry would be a significant blow. It must also be taken into account that the Leopard 2 is a much older design than the Challenger 2, and first entered service almost 20 years prior in 1979, making it even older than the now retired Challenger 1 which entered service in 1983. The Challenger 2 is the most modern class of Western tank, and entered service from 1998, although its lack of a smoothbore cannon undermined its export potential which combined with the relatively small size of British tank units meant that it would terminate production much earlier than the Leopard 2. While the Leopard 2 is a faster and more mobile tank, the Challenger 2 was considered to have had much better armour protection – although this diminished over time as the German tank received more continuous upgrades.

With the Leopard II over 40 years old, Germany is notably currently investing in developing a successor, meaning a British investment in acquiring the older German design arguably would not have been a sensible choice. Furthermore, it is important to consider that if Britain did indeed replace the Challenger 2 with foreign design, the Leopard II would not necessarily be the best choice – not only in terms of capabilities but also for political reasons. As Britain looks to cement ties with developed economies outside Europe after leaving the European Union, a better choice could be the South Korean K2 Black Panther which was developed several decades after the Leopard 2 and is generally considered to be much more capable. A joint next generation tank program with Japan, or even purchases of American M1 Abrams tanks with some domestic modifications, may ultimately all have proven more sensible than a Leopard 2 purchase. Upgrading the Challenger 2, however, provides a low cost solution to modernising the country’s armoured units while avoiding the difficulties of moving to an entirely new class of vehicle and preserving the domestic arms industry for potentially more ambitious programs in future. 

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