"If the British army had to fight with an equal enemy, which means Russia, in Eastern Europe, our soldiers, undoubtedly remaining one of the best in the world, to deep shame would have to go into battle with obsolete and even outdated armored vehicles", the authors of the report stated.
They pointed out that an "artillery duel" between "modern British and Russian divisions" could have ended in one way - "and not necessarily in favor of the British army".
Many of the combat vehicles are more than three decades old. They do not have high mechanical reliability, are inferior to modern artillery and missile systems in terms of firepower, and do not receive sufficient air support.
Parliamentarians say that the modernization program has failed, and this leads to the fact that the equipment is becoming even more obsolete, which, of course, affects the overall potential and combat power of the army "especially in the face of a potential adversary such as Russia".
Today, the British army has 227 tanks, while in 1990 the country had 1,200 such combat vehicles. The country's military leadership has no hope for Challenger 2 - experts believe that it will hardly be able to withstand the Armata.
“A Russian tank division would seriously outperform a downsized third division”, - says Brigadier General Ben Barry.