Scotland’s Tank Revolution: Crawford’s Bold Proposal to Ramp Up British Armour Production!”

Tank Factory on M8? Lt Col Stuart Crawford Calls for Scotland to Build German Leopard 2s Amidst British Army Decline!

In an article published today in the UK Defence Journal and on DefenceReview.UK, defence analyst and political commentator Lt Col Stuart Crawford is advocating that Scotland could build German Leopard 2 tanks in a new factory to be established somewhere along the M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Crawford said: “It is widely accepted that Britain’s armed forces have atrophied to the point of insignificance over the last two decades, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the British Army’s Royal Armoured Corps. From being able to field nearly 900 tanks at the height of the Cold War we are currently looking at procuring only 148 of the nearly new Challenger 3 main battle tanks.

This is quite clearly not sufficient for us to be able to make any credible contribution to NATO; they might last two weeks in the sort of conflict we see in Ukraine. And for various reasons we are unlikely to procure any more of this particular vehicle, so in the interests of the rapid expansion of our tank fleet that we may well need we will have to buy off the shelf.

The obvious choice is the German Leopard 2, employed by over 20 armies around the world. But rather than buy them all from Germany we should look to set up a production facility in the UK to make them, as previously offered, by their parent company KNDS.

With Challenger 3 being built in England and the armoured cavalry vehicle Ajax being made in Wales, the obvious choice for Leopard 2 production is in Scotland. The Scottish Government should bite off KNDS’ hand if it offers to do so.”

Copyright and all rights reserved – UK Defence Journal

Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a defence analyst and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at www.DefenceReview.uk

Lt Col Stuart Crawford’s latest book Tank Commander (Hardback) is available now

http://www.DefenceReview.UK

@peoplemattertv

@509298