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The forthcoming strategic defence review (SDR) in 2025 is expected to outline the future direction of the UK’s armed forces and the capabilities it needs to meet the demands placed on it.

About this briefing

This briefing, one of a series on UK armed forces capabilities, looks at the major equipment capabilities of the British army.

This briefing sets out how the army is structured, recent and current modernisation plans, and major equipment platforms, with a specific focus on tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery. It provides information on current numbers, brief histories of procurement (where relevant) and future procurement plans, as known prior to the publication of the strategic defence review. It highlights concerns about capability gaps but it does not cover personnel numbers. It is not an inventory of the army’s entire equipment holdings, nor does it discuss the army reserve.

Related Commons Library briefings include:

This briefing will be updated to reflect any decisions made by the Defence Secretary in the SDR. The SDR is expected to be published in spring 2025; the government has not given a firm date for publication.

The army is undergoing its “most significant modernisation in a generation”

In 2021 the army set out what it described as the “most radical transformation” of the army for 20 years.

This reflects the army’s plans, set out in Future Soldier, to deliver a “modernised warfighting division by 2030” that is built around new tanks, armoured vehicles, long-range artillery, attack helicopters and drones.

The army would be reorganised into combat brigade teams, based around three new armoured vehicle: Challenger 3 main battle tanks; Ajax armoured vehicles; and Boxer mechanised infantry vehicles. These would be supported by uncrewed aerial systems, artillery and a range of other capabilities and support.

The MOD has described the army as undergoing its “most significant modernisation in a generation”. The current head of the army, General Sir Roly Walker, has spoken of his ambition to “double the Army’s fighting power in three years and triple it by the end of the decade”.

However, bringing these new capabilities into service is taking time. The Defence Select Committee, in a report published in 2021, was highly critical of the army’s record on the procurement of armoured vehicles.

In February 2024 the MOD introduced a new procurement model intended to speed up the development and delivery of major equipment programmes. This prioritised delivering a minimum deployable capability quickly, rather than “waiting for a 100% solution that may be too late and out of date”.

Selected major programmes

The army is undergoing a major equipment transformation, spending billions on new tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, rockets, helicopters and engineering vehicles.

Armoured vehicles

Armoured vehicles are heavily protected vehicles that are designed to withstand heavy firepower. They may be intended to deliver heavy firepower themselves, such as Challenger tanks, or provide high protection for reconnaissance, personnel carrying and engineer vehicles which are expected to operate under heavy fire.

The army is modernising its fleet of armoured vehicles with upgraded Challenger tanks, new Ajax armoured vehicles and Boxer mechanised infantry vehicles. Together, they will provide the core of the army’s warfighting division (alongside all the necessary support elements). Current plans for each type are as follows:

  • 148 Challenger 3 tanks, expected to enter service in 2027 with full operating capability (when all are in service), expected in 2030.
  • 589 from the Ajax family of tracked armoured vehicles. The vehicles are expected to begin to enter service at the end of 2025 with full operating capability before 2030. The six variants on order are:
    • 245 Ajax fighting vehicles armed with a cannon
    • 93 Ares troop-carrying armoured personnel reconnaissance vehicle
    • 112 Athena vehicles providing a mobile command post
    • Three variants focused on combat support and engineering capabilities to support the other variants: Argus (51 vehicles), Apollo (50) and Atlas (38)
  • 623 Boxer vehicles across four different variants (infantry carrier, specialist carrier, command and ambulance). Boxer is a modular platform, which means different system modules can be attached to a common drive module. Initial operating capability is currently expected at the end of 2025 with full operating capability in 2032. The MOD has indicated it is interested in three more variants (close support bridging, repair and recovery, and armoured mortar vehicle) from the extensive Boxer family of vehicles.

In March 2025 Maria Eagle, the Minister for Defence Procurement, said there are no current plans to procure additional tanks or armoured vehicles to those already announced. However, she added “it would be inappropriate to comment on future capability decisions until the SDR has reported and decisions have been made”.

Long-range artillery

The army has also committed to investing in long-range artillery, sometimes referred to as “deep fires” or “long-range fires”.

The army has donated its entire fleet of AS-90 155mm self-propelled gun (or howitzers) to Ukraine. The army’s mobile fires platform project is working on delivering new, vehicle-based artillery systems. The MOD has bought 14 Archer artillery systems from Sweden as a stop-gap until the longer-term replacement for the AS-90 enters service. This will be the RCH 155 artillery system. The programme is still in its assessment phase and the Defence Procurement Minister, Maria Eagle, has said that while the aim is to achieve a minimal deployable capacity within this decade, the timeline “will be guided by the outcome of the Strategic Defence Review”.

The government says it is “considering its wider deep fires options subject to outcomes of the strategic defence review”. It has ordered 61 M270 MLRS launchers from the United States and is considering ordering more. The army is also exploring what it calls extended or enhanced range guided multiple launch rocket systems (GMLRS).

Helicopters

The army has upgraded 50 of its Apache attack helicopters and is in the process of replacing aging Chinook helicopters with 14 new extended range Chinooks from 2029 onwards.

Questions about the army’s readiness for warfighting

Questions have been raised in recent years about the army’s ability to deliver a warfighting division. In its 2021 report on armoured vehicles, the Defence Select Committee said the army found itself in a “vulnerable position” both because its armoured vehicle capacity has fallen behind allies and potential adversaries, and because programmes to introduce new vehicles or upgrade existing ones have encountered serious difficulties, resulting in delays, increased costs and cancellations.

Jack Watling of RUSI, the defence thinktank, commenting on the plans set out by the government in the 2021 integrated review and accompanying documents, warned at the time of the short-term risks the MOD was taking:

The British army is aiming to be in a position to have an effective warfighting force in the 2030s. But that comes at the expense of its warfighting capability today.

In July 2023, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Chief of the Defence Staff acknowledged the state of the army’s vehicle fleet, and the impact it has on the ability of the army to field a warfighting division, in evidence to the Defence Committee: “We accept that the vehicles are really old. We are investing like crazy in our warfighting division to improve it for 2030. It is still a warfighting division; it is not the one that we want”.

The head of the army, General Sir Roly Walker, has said that the army needs to be realistic that new fighting systems may not be in place before the army is called into battle, and it may have to work within the limits of what it has now. He said that the army’s fighting power will come from a hybrid system, combining existing, older systems with new capabilities and techniques.

Speaking in July 2024, General Sir Roly set out his ambition to “double the Army’s fighting power in three years and triple it by the end of the decade”. He explained that, by integrating sensors and effectors, as the Ukrainians are doing (“marrying cheap and expendable sensors and effectors to smart software”), means that “we can double in three years with this hybrid system, and then we’ll triple it when the new fighting systems come online”.

He also spoke about new and emerging technologies, saying that the future army will field forces which “exploit advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous systems to integrated data from all domains for precise battlefield impact”.

The government has said that “future capability development priorities” will be guided by the forthcoming strategic defence review (SDR).

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