Thursday, July 2, 2015

UK's defence modernization advances

Apparently the British army modernization programme is running quite well - after already ordering the required MTU engines (which will be licence-made by Rolls Royce), two further milestone have been made.

The UK has ordered a total of 515 40 mm autocanons for use with telescopic case ammunition from CTA International. 245 of these will be used for the Warrior CSP upgrade, while 245 will be used for the Scout SV. 25 guns are used for trials and testing. The costs are a £150 million ($236 million),
delivery of the CTAS cannons is to start in 2015 and last seven years.

Furthermore a study is reviewing the possibility to produce the Scout SV chassis and turret in the UK, after an initial batch of 100 vehicles would have been manufactured in Spain.


Author's opinion: The British army modernization as part of the former FRES programme is getting along well. That is good news for the British army and for the NATO.
Still I have a few troubles with the British implementation of a vehicle armed with the 40 mm Case Telescoped Armament System, it seems one of the problems of the British military to always favor "exotic" calibres nobody else uses.
The MICV-80 Warrior already used the horrendous RARDEN gun, which not only suffered from being cumbersome to use (and being manually loaden), but it also used the rare 30x170 mm catridge, while the rest of the world settled for the 30x173 mm catrige (most NATO members) or the 30x165 mm catridge (Eastern block).
The CTA gun might have a similar fate as the RARDEN gun, as the development partner France still utilizes the 25 mm autocannon on their wheeled VBCI infantry fighting vehicle.

The low ammunition load of the Warrior WSCP is also not a decision I would agree with.

The Scout SV (pictured) is based on the ASCOD 2 from GDELS
The attempt to locally produce a part of the Scout SV in the UK is, frankly, a stupid idea. It's just going to increase the cost and delay the production.

Here are the original reports from Jane's IHS:

Sources: Jane's on CTAS 40 mm cannon , Jane's on possible local production of Scout SV

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