Australia was the first country to adopt the E-7A Wedgetail. Credit: Gordon Arthur

Reaffirmed in July prior to the beginning of the summer holidays and the implementation of out-of-office messages on emails across Whitehall, the UK government confirmed approximately 60% of the Challenger 3 main battle tank (MBT) supply chain will be provided by UK suppliers.

Good news for a land armaments sector that – since the design, development, and fielding of 90s-era armour like the Challenger 2, Warrior infantry fighting vehicle, and AS90 self-propelled artillery – has largely lost its ability to indigenous perform cradle-to-grave armoured programmes. 

Much of Challenger 3 can be traced to Rheinmetall, a German defence prime at the very top of the land armoured game. Germany too can trace its influence in the Boxer mechanised infantry vehicle now entering UK service and the British Army’s future RCH155 artillery. 

The Warrior’s effective replacement, the Ajax series of tracked armour, is being assembled in the UK to a US-owned Spanish (ASCOD) design.

Nevertheless, with the introduction into service of the first of a planned 148 Challenger 3 MBTs potentially to be achieved in 2027, UK and overseas suppliers to the programme are able to rely on the certainty of several years of contracted work ahead of them, with the platforms officially due to serve until 2040.  

One key programme that will affect by a number of European operators is the evolution of the Type 212A conventional diesel-electric submarine (SSKs) design. Three nations are building on this legacy model in two different variations: first, the German and Norwegian Type 212 Common Design (CD) and second, Italy’s U212 Near Future Submarine (NFS).

It will also be valuable to examine how these changes differ from the capabilities offered by other European SSK designs, including the Dutch Orka class and Swedish Bleckinge-class submarines.

Central to the £800m (~$1bn) contract awarded by the UK Ministry of Defence in 2021 to Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land – a joint venture (JV) between Rheinmetall and BAE Systems – will be the fitting of the German company’s L55A1 120mm smoothbore gun in a new turret.

Additional upgrades include an upgraded engine with new cooling system and hydrogas suspension, a new suite of thermal cameras and sights, a secretive new modular armour, and an automated target detection and tracking system.

Global Defence Technology explores the range of suppliers, both UK and overseas, that are playing a part in the development of the British Army’s future, if decidedly small, MBT force.

Of the known value of awarded subcontracts in the above list, UK-based suppliers account for just over £46m, although this is not a complete picture as some companies did not disclose financial elements of their respective deals.

For non-UK suppliers, the subcontract totals in excess of £131m, or around 74% of the combined value of all suppler deals announced, and numerical values revealed. 

It is also noted that Sheffield Forgemasters will provide steel material for use in the manufacture of gun barrels for the Challenger 3 and RCH 155 programmes as part of a wider UK government investment into its manufacturing base.

However, while the above data is incomplete, the sizeable difference in known contract values between UK and non-UK companies in the Challenger 3 supply chain raises questions over the UK government’s claim that 60% of the programme’s supply chain will be sourced in-country.

With Rheinmetall holding a majority of the RBSL JV, the Challenger 3 programme appears to lean heavily into industrial capabilities in Europe, although the reasons for this will not be as simple as London having a preference for German engineering. 

To modernise the platform, via an April request for information, the USAF is canvassing the inclusion of a new radar, electronic warfare equipment and enhanced

communications to create an “Advanced E-7”. Two such examples are sought within seven years, after which other E-7s could be retrofitted with the modifications.

As for the UK, three 737NG aircraft are currently undergoing modification in Birmingham, the first completing its maiden flight in September 2024.

Global Defence Technology asked Boeing what makes the E-7 stand out, and a spokesperson listing three points. First is its allied interoperability. “With the aircraft in service or on contract with Australia, South Korea, Türkiye, the UK and USA – and selected by Nato – its unmatched interoperability benefits a growing global user community for integration in future allied and coalition operations.”

Lisa Sheridan, an International Field Services and Training Systems programme manager at Boeing Defence Australia, said: “Ordinarily, when a C-17 is away from a main operating base, operators don’t have access to Boeing specialist maintenance crews, grounding the aircraft for days longer than required.

“ATOM can operate in areas of limited or poor network coverage and could significantly reduce aircraft downtime by quickly and easily connecting operators with Boeing experts anywhere in the world, who can safely guide them through complex maintenance tasks.”

Boeing also uses AR devices in-house to cut costs and improve plane construction times, with engineers at Boeing Research & Technology using HoloLens headsets to build aircraft more quickly.

The headsets allow workers to avoid adverse effects like motion sickness during plane construct, enabling a Boeing factory to produce a new aircraft every 16 hours.

Elsewhere, the US Marine Corps is using AR devices to modernise its aircraft maintenance duties, including to spot wear and tear from jets’ combat landings on aircraft carriers. The landings can cause fatigue in aircraft parts over its lifetime, particularly if the part is used beyond the designers’ original design life.  

Australia could be one of the main beneficiaries of this dramatic increase in demand, where private companies and local governments alike are eager to expand the country’s nascent rare earths production. In 2021, Australia produced the fourth-most rare earths in the world. It’s total annual production of 19,958 tonnes remains significantly less than the mammoth 152,407 tonnes produced by China, but a dramatic improvement over the 1,995 tonnes produced domestically in 2011.

The dominance of China in the rare earths space has also encouraged other countries, notably the US, to look further afield for rare earth deposits to diversify their supply of the increasingly vital minerals. With the US eager to ringfence rare earth production within its allies as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, including potentially allowing the Department of Defense to invest in Australian rare earths, there could be an unexpected windfall for Australian rare earths producers.