During the 1982 Falklands War, British forces crossed thousands of miles of open ocean, engaged and soundly defeated an Argentine force. Earlier, in 2014, a regiment of 48 Challenger 2s deployed to Poland for one of the biggest British war games in recent memory.Īs recently as 2016, the California think-tank RAND concluded that the British army was “capable of sustaining a deployed armored brigade indefinitely, even if many of the details regarding how remain unknown.” In Western armies, an armored brigade might possess a hundred or more tanks. Most recently in October 2018, 5,500 British troops with 180 armored vehicles including eight Challenger 2s deployed to Oman for a combined-arms war game. Once deployed, tankers train for high-intensity warfare alongside infantry, artillery and air power. And perhaps more importantly, the British armed forces still practice deploying the tanks over long distance aboard the British fleet’s amphibious and transport ships. And there the pool of Leopard is much bigger,' Mölling said.But for all their flaws, the Challenger 2s are effective tanks. 'It's spare parts, it's repair, maintenance, and overhaul that needs to be done. Logistically speaking, the Leopards present a key advantage over America's M1 Abrams and the British Challenger 2: larger stocks. So this also gives you a certain tactical advantage in moving in and out quite fast, but also crossing distances in a quite short range.' 'And third point is manoeuvre,' Mölling added. If you don't have to fear that any shot that hits you means that you basically go up in flames, it's quite something that helps you psychologically.' 'It has a very advanced armour, which is also important for the tank crews.

Christian Mölling, head of the Centre for Security and Defence at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), told Euronews. So, it can fire quite a long range with different types of ammunition that you can basically shape towards your target, so what you want to hit, you can choose different types of ammunition for that,' Dr. The Leopard is 'quite powerful with regard to firepower.

Military tank size comparison