15mm and 28mm Fanatik,
The author is arguing Britain doesn't need tanks. He does say Poland needs tanks.
Now note Belgium and Netherlands have already got rid of their tanks (and other heavy equipment). Germany and France maintain small fleets with poor serviceability. The future of French ones is just as clouded as the British ones as the French view their primary role as colonial enforcers in Africa.
So if no one between Britain and Poland has tanks (or sufficient artillery or air defence or whatever), then how do you maintain strategic depth in defence?
What reserves are there once those Polish battalions get inevitably chewed up? Light infantry brigades with no armour or artillery??
The strategic mobility argument is a load of codswallop cause a lot of these large boxy wheeled barely armoured APCs won't fit in anything smaller than a C-17 which are rare as hen's teeth!
So they require same amount of transport as a a tank or Warrior IFV but bring far less to the fight.
The argument in Europe goes like this
1. Chance of war is minimal.
2. War is obsolete
3. Europe doesn't need to spend on defence
4. Americans will die for us.
Europe has been engaged in a game of mutual disarmament for 30 years.
This article does the same – it basically argues British don't need forces for conventional warfare.
Every deactivated tank battalion, fighter squadron or warship undermines collective defence.
Britain has other viable alternatives.
Light motorised infantry and special forces? Cause that will be it.
Even the airborne assault guys are going to struggle to operate as more than light infantry as number of helicopters is in decline.
RAF certainly won't be there – F-35 fleet is likely to be halved and Typhoon fleet was never upgraded to same ground attack capability as Tornado.
British light infantry won't do anything against a Russian assault on the Baltics. Indeed the forces in the Baltic are mere trip wires – basically a suicide force designed to prompt
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The crux of the matter is that NATO's European core is hollowed out. French, Dutch and Belgians emphasise colonial warfare with limited or no conventional warfare capability.
Germany's army is a sad joke with virtually no capability
Denmark and Norway are capable but extremely small.
Czech and Slovak armies are small, obsolete and badly equipped. The Batlics armies are small and lacking in virtually every capability.
Leaves Poland with it's largely obsolete army as the main line of defence in NATO.
This means the potential loss of Britain's 3rd Armoured Division with its 4 brigades will massively reduce NATO's northern defences and reserves.