The British Army must be equipped with the capabilities to deal with a “Kaleidoscope” of threats in the future, UK Minister for Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S), Philip Dunne, warned today.
Speaking at the International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) conference in London on 27 January, Dunne described “diverse threats” in the contemporary operational environment which includes the Russian threat in eastern Europe, Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East as well as global weapons proliferation.
“Our armed forces will continually be called upon to provide agile, speedy and intelligent responses mixing hard, soft and smart power,” Dunne explained. “It is imperative to maintain our battlefield fleet of versatile armoured vehicles and we need to stay ahead in a world of exponential technological advances and the ever present challenge of shrinking defence budgets.”
Referring to an “overheated” defence equipment programme which the current administration inherited four years ago, Dunne urged how the present government had restructured the armed forces into a scalable, modular, and joint approach.
According to Dunne, the UK’s 10-year defence equipment plan was launched in September last year with a GBP3.5 billion contract with General Dynamics for the development of the SCOUT SV capability, providing the Army’s first “fully digital armoured vehicle.”
“This game changer will provide the eyes and ears on the battlefield for commanders in the future,” he continued. “Finally, we are looking at how to complement forces with medium armoured capability and we need to consider what other capabilities we might require to complement scout SV, further improving operational and tactical reach with minimum logistical drag.”
It was added that such a digital platform, developed around a Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA), would also feature integrated protection systems to counter hard and soft targets with this approach been applied to FOXHOUND and future SCOUT SV vehicles.
Elsewhere, Dunne said the WARRIOR Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP) would keep the infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) at the “front and centre” of combat capability for at least the next 25 years. The programme began life fire evaluation with the CT40 canon last year with the initial tranche of 28 upgraded vehicles due to be delivered “on time and cost” this year.
The CHALLENGER 2 Life Extension Programme, he added, also continued in a concept phase, also designed to extend the main battle tank’s (MBT) shelf life out beyond 2025, while Dunne also explained moves to incorporate JACKAL, COYOTE, and MASTIFF armoured vehicles into the MoD’s core, long-term equipment programme.
Meanwhile, Dunne stressed the importance of international collaboration moving forward in the armoured vehicle market while explaining how UK personnel were currently evaluating the VBCI IFV in France.
“We must pool our resources more widely and share nascent ideas to deep technological data and experimental data as much as possible. We have seen what can be achieved for the WARRIOR programme and in the US with novel armour and protection of our [vehicle] fleets,” he said while also outlining IED protection efforts with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US.
“We must work together in training our people and how we can work together building on our experience learned in Afghanistan. At such a time of turmoil in the world, there is plenty to discuss,” Dunne continued.
Looking at the future of the UK’s domestic market, Dunne said: “We are looking at our next vehicle programme beyond SCOUT. There are a series of challenges over the next couple of decades and many of our vehicles will hit their out of service dates [in that period of time]. There is no trying to hide the fact, we will need to invest in our vehicle fleets in decades to come and some investment in heavy and some in light. protected mobility an increasing cap in our vehicle procurement. This will have an impact on the weight of the vehicle with a continuing trend for heavier vehicles than perhaps we ‘ve been used to in previous decades. We live in an unpredictable world and it would be very foolish for any politician to say they did not envisage opportunities to engage some of the threats we face in several regions of the world."
"Who’d have thought we would see the breakdown of many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Dunne asked?
“I’m not saying we are going to be deploying large numbers of troops to those theatres but we live in an unpredictable world and threats are appearing where we did not perhaps envisage them.”
Finally, Dunne described how the British Army had been “less at the forefront” of technology development over recent years, in comparison to the air force and navy. “We are trying to address that balance now,” he said.
“Clearly, if we can cut the time it takes to design and manufacture technology, so much the better. We can work together with industry to cut that time and that would be very welcome,” Dunne concluded.
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| Philip Dunne, UK Minister for Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S), Philip Dunne, spoke at the International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) conference in London on 27 January. |
Speaking at the International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) conference in London on 27 January, Dunne described “diverse threats” in the contemporary operational environment which includes the Russian threat in eastern Europe, Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East as well as global weapons proliferation.
“Our armed forces will continually be called upon to provide agile, speedy and intelligent responses mixing hard, soft and smart power,” Dunne explained. “It is imperative to maintain our battlefield fleet of versatile armoured vehicles and we need to stay ahead in a world of exponential technological advances and the ever present challenge of shrinking defence budgets.”
Referring to an “overheated” defence equipment programme which the current administration inherited four years ago, Dunne urged how the present government had restructured the armed forces into a scalable, modular, and joint approach.
According to Dunne, the UK’s 10-year defence equipment plan was launched in September last year with a GBP3.5 billion contract with General Dynamics for the development of the SCOUT SV capability, providing the Army’s first “fully digital armoured vehicle.”
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| SCOUT SV prototype. |
“This game changer will provide the eyes and ears on the battlefield for commanders in the future,” he continued. “Finally, we are looking at how to complement forces with medium armoured capability and we need to consider what other capabilities we might require to complement scout SV, further improving operational and tactical reach with minimum logistical drag.”
It was added that such a digital platform, developed around a Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA), would also feature integrated protection systems to counter hard and soft targets with this approach been applied to FOXHOUND and future SCOUT SV vehicles.
Elsewhere, Dunne said the WARRIOR Capability Sustainment Programme (WCSP) would keep the infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) at the “front and centre” of combat capability for at least the next 25 years. The programme began life fire evaluation with the CT40 canon last year with the initial tranche of 28 upgraded vehicles due to be delivered “on time and cost” this year.
The CHALLENGER 2 Life Extension Programme, he added, also continued in a concept phase, also designed to extend the main battle tank’s (MBT) shelf life out beyond 2025, while Dunne also explained moves to incorporate JACKAL, COYOTE, and MASTIFF armoured vehicles into the MoD’s core, long-term equipment programme.
Meanwhile, Dunne stressed the importance of international collaboration moving forward in the armoured vehicle market while explaining how UK personnel were currently evaluating the VBCI IFV in France.
“We must pool our resources more widely and share nascent ideas to deep technological data and experimental data as much as possible. We have seen what can be achieved for the WARRIOR programme and in the US with novel armour and protection of our [vehicle] fleets,” he said while also outlining IED protection efforts with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US.
“We must work together in training our people and how we can work together building on our experience learned in Afghanistan. At such a time of turmoil in the world, there is plenty to discuss,” Dunne continued.
Looking at the future of the UK’s domestic market, Dunne said: “We are looking at our next vehicle programme beyond SCOUT. There are a series of challenges over the next couple of decades and many of our vehicles will hit their out of service dates [in that period of time]. There is no trying to hide the fact, we will need to invest in our vehicle fleets in decades to come and some investment in heavy and some in light. protected mobility an increasing cap in our vehicle procurement. This will have an impact on the weight of the vehicle with a continuing trend for heavier vehicles than perhaps we ‘ve been used to in previous decades. We live in an unpredictable world and it would be very foolish for any politician to say they did not envisage opportunities to engage some of the threats we face in several regions of the world."
"Who’d have thought we would see the breakdown of many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Dunne asked?
“I’m not saying we are going to be deploying large numbers of troops to those theatres but we live in an unpredictable world and threats are appearing where we did not perhaps envisage them.”
Finally, Dunne described how the British Army had been “less at the forefront” of technology development over recent years, in comparison to the air force and navy. “We are trying to address that balance now,” he said.
“Clearly, if we can cut the time it takes to design and manufacture technology, so much the better. We can work together with industry to cut that time and that would be very welcome,” Dunne concluded.
Andrew White