Forget fucking Cambodia, here is a short thread on why tank numbers absolutely matter and the real reasons 148 upgraded CR2 just won't cut it for the UK Army. 1/ https://twitter.com/pinstripedline/status/1121025942992949248

This should be a simple math exercise, but it's not. The UK Army currently operates 227 CR2 across 3 regular army tank regiments, a reserve regiment and the Armoured centre. These platforms are scattered from one end of the globe to the other in support of UK training outcomes 2/

However as the UK Army restructures under it's 2020 plan, 3 Armoured Inf Bdes become 2, with the UK converting one of its Tk Regiments into an Ajax recon unit. That leaves 2 regular army Tk Regts, 1 reserve and the Armoured centre.

A UK Tank Regiment contains 56 CR2s. That is 3 x Sqns of 18, 4 x troops of 4 plus two in the Sqn Hqs. There are an additional 2 in the Regimental Hqs. The CO needs a Tank after all.

So if the plan was simply to drop a Tank Regiment then 227-56=171. So the MOD should have announced the upgrade of 171 CR2 to the CR2 LEP standard in support of its transition to Army 2020. Simple right? So what the fuck happened?

Money happened, that's what. The reality is the UK MOD simply doesn't have the cash to upgrade the numbers they need. It's far more likely that the 148 is the number of vehs that can be upgraded, as a result of the cost of the upgrade and the total budget cap for LEP.

But it gets worse then that. The 171 vehs actually required to man 2 x Regular ARs, a reserve AR and the Armoured centre doesn't appear to include a repair and attrition reserve. That is a significant capablity gap. Why?

Repair pools. Regional repair pools are critical to the health of local tank fleets. Why? Because accidents happen. Fires, roll overs, collisions, ammunition incidents. All these things occur and effect fleet availability.

When you conduct large collective training activities, you need all your platforms available. A Sqn training activity with 10/14 tanks isn't Sqn training. A Regimental training activity with 36/56 tanks isn't Regimental training. Collective training platform numbers matter.

Regional repair pools allow you to surge your fleet availability to support larger collective training activities. But only if you have them. With both regular ARs located at Tidsworth the regional pool should consist of approx 20% of the local fleet. That's another 22 Tks.

Attrition stock. It doesn't matter how great your tank is, if deployed you will suffer casualties. Attrition stock is their to replace vehs deployed on operations that are damaged beyond repair. But only if you have them.

If you don't have an attrition stock, normally 10% of your total fleet, then the replacements will becoming out of your repair pools if you have them or worse your non-deployed training fleet.

Let's talk refresh/rebuild/upgrade. Regardless of what you call it, these tasks can't be completed without affecting your training fleet unless you have surplus vehs. A Tk is only as good as the crew using it. Anything that affects fleet availability, effects crew quality.

So is 148 the right number of tanks for the UK Army? Not if there serious about operating 2 x Regular Armoured Regiments supported by the reserve and the Armoured centre. About 212 should do the trick. @nicholadrummond @thinkdefence @pinstripedline

@GavinWilliamson @JohnnyMercerUK @sirnicholaspat2 some light weekend reading gents. Why numbers still matter.