- Royal Tank Regiment live-fire exercise cancelled
- MoD says training is being reprioritised amid spending reviews
- Move comes as wider British Army training is reportedly being curtailed
A live-fire exercise due to be conducted by the British Army’s Royal Tank Regiment this week has been cancelled in order to “prioritise” military training elsewhere, according to UK Government defence officials.
Revealed on 9 September, Louise Sandher-Jones, Minister for the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), said the decision to cancel the live-firing training followed “wider defence direction”, in response to a written parliamentary question by Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty.
This appears to be a potential reference to a widely reported cessation of large swathes of British Army training until Q2 2027 due to a growing defence funding crisis.
The inference in the response suggests that the MoD does not feel that live-firing training for the British Army’s premier heavy armoured regiment is a priority.
“The exercise was cancelled… to prioritise training that delivers the greatest operational effect while protecting essential readiness, operational commitments, safety-critical activity and our Nato commitments,” Sandher-Jones said.
“This direction resulted from ongoing reviews of defence spending priorities,” she added.
According to the British Army, the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, having been created in World War I, at the dawn of tank warfare.
The regiment operates the Challenger 2 main battle tank (MBT) and the Bulldog 2 armoured personnel carrier.
Both types are being withdrawn from British Army service, with the Challenger 2 being replaced by the Challenger 3, the Bulldog, in part, by the Boxer mechanised infantry vehicle.
UK outlines Challenger 2 tank numbers
Detailed in the latest UK Government equipment list for the UK Armed Forces, the British Army purportedly holds 723 Bulldog APCs and 285 Challenger 2 MBTs.
However, these figures are inflated somewhat, with the number of actually available vehicles far lower. Indeed, the number of Challenger 2 MBTs – should the UK figures be taken as accurate – has increased in recent years despite the platform ceasing production in 2002.
Whatever the real number of Challenger 2 MBTs, the British Army’s future tank fleet is due to be cut significantly, with just 148 Challenger 3s on order.
The number of Bulldog APCs reduced by 15 vehicles from 2025 to 2026, according to UK Government figures.
