Star of the Farnborough air show, the 6th generation Tempest fighter from the Global Air Combat Program, or GCAP, is presented today as the most advanced program of the 4 Western initiatives in this direction, with the NGAD of the US Air Force, US Navy F/A-XX, and European FCAS.
Bringing together Great Britain, Italy and Japan, financing for the development of the Tempest, the construction of the demonstrator of which has already started, appears secure, the three countries having committed until 2035, in this sense.
However, beyond the obviously dithyrambic declarations of BAe and Leonardo, around this program, during the Farnborough show, other echoes, coming from London, present a much more uncertain trajectory.
Indeed, the British Army, long heavily neglected by the British authorities, in favor of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, needs a lot of credits, and very quickly, to respond to the evolving threat, and especially on his calendar. And the £12 billion to be invested by London in the GCAP program are directly in the crosshairs of the general staff of the British land forces.
In this section:
The British Army, a paper army, according to its former chief of staff, General Patrick Sanders
It must be said that, in fact, the British Army is in a lamentable situation. Between the unfavorable budgetary decisions over the last 20 years, having seriously slowed down the renewal of major equipment, the reduction of its size to 72.500 men and women, the lowest since the beginning of the 90th century, and the terrible operational pressure imposed by commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the British Army is today bloodless, and is nothing more than a ghost of the military force it represented in the XNUMXs.
Thus, according to General Sanders, his chief of staff until recently, the British Army would, in fact, be capable of deploying, in Europe, hardly more than one battalion in the short term, and one in the short term. two combat brigades, beyond, very far from the division promised to NATO.
Not only does the British Army no longer have the format required to meet British commitments within NATO, but it also no longer has the equipment necessary to support high-intensity combat action. , especially over time.
Its armored corps is made up, in fact, of less than 200 Challenger 2 heavy tanks, of very relative effectiveness in Ukraine, of 1350 Warrior and Bulldog tracked armored vehicles, designed in the 70s, of a thousand armored vehicles 4 ×4 Mastiff, Jackal, Foxhound or Ridgeback, and around sixty 155 mm artillery pieces Archer and AS90, as well as around forty M270 multiple rocket launchers.
Not only is this equipment often outdated, but due to its age, it suffers from low availability and maintenance that is as heavy as it is expensive, further handicapping the operational capabilities of the British Army.
Several programs have been launched to modernize and strengthen British land forces, with the acquisition of 589 Ajax armored combat and reconnaissance vehicles and derivatives, 623 6×6 Boxer personnel carriers, and, more recently, a large, but still confidential, number of RCH-155 mounted guns from KNDS Deutschland. However, the timetables for these programs extend beyond 2030.
The alerts launched about the British Army by General Sanders, judging that it couldn't fight today for more than two months facing a symmetrical opponent, probably cost him his job. He was dismissed after only two years, in June 2024, compared to the traditional four years of his three predecessors.
For the Chief of Staff of the British Army, General Roland Walker, the 2027 deadline now also applies in Europe
His successor, General Roland Walker, took office on June 15, 2024. If he understood how far not to go, so as not to follow the same trajectory as his predecessor, he too must face a most worrying situation.
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hello, if a rafale 5 accompanied by 1 or 2 heavy or medium dornes, can do the job, both on land and on an AP, why bother trying to make programs with the Germans again.
that we put everything on the rafale 5 and its drones, Dassault has been proving its know-how for 70 years and does not need anyone to make top-notch planes.
in the same reflection if we make a rafale 5, which could be navalized, with its drones, is it necessary to make an 80000 ton aircraft carrier? we could perhaps make two of 2 tonnes to take over from the great Charles...
hum hum there is certainly food for thought