Tanking the tanks could be a big mistake

That an abundance of tanks is no guarantee of a happy and secure nation was evident from the Soviet Union’s annual May Day parades through Red Square. A more controversial point is whether Britain can remain a serious military power without any working tanks. The government is reportedly considering, as part of its promised defence review, mothballing the country’s entire fleet of Challenger 2 tanks in order to save money and invest in evolving forms of military technology such as cyber and space warfare. This has raised the ire of some military figures, such as the former chief of the general staff General Lord Dannatt, who this week described the suggestion as ‘very dangerous’ in the face of renewed aggression from Moscow. Others have pointed out that putting away our tanks — even if they might still be available in an emergency — would make us less useful on the Nato battlefield than countries like Poland and Hungary.

One thing is for sure: something has to give. The Prime Minister’s promise last September of an above-inflation 2.6 per cent rise in core defence spending now looks in doubt given the enormous costs of fighting Covid-19. The furlough scheme alone has cost almost as much as the Ministry of Defence’s annual £40 billion budget. Unlike the Budget, the Spending Review cannot be delayed — so all government spending is being reviewed now, and defence cannot consider itself immune. Politically, the government will find it much harder to go back on a prestige project like HS2 than to cancel or delay a rise in defence spending. The military is an easier political target.

It is also true that the requirements of military spending are changing, and that tanks and other armoured land vehicles are unlikely to play as big a role in 21st–century warfare as they did in the last century.