The United Kingdom’s Royal Scots Dragoon Guards now mount up in Jackal armored vehicles, produced by SupaCat Ltd., moving to a light cavalry role, leaving BAE Systems’ Challenger 2 main battle tanks behind.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) yesterday said the move is one of the major steps in the Army 2020 program to form Adaptive and Reactive Forces.
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| Challenger 2 MBT, Jackal Armored Vehicle Photo: MoD |
Sixty percent of the regiment is deployed on operations in Afghanistan, and the Rear Operations Group in northern Germany piped the last of the Challenger 2 tanks out of the barracks where they’ve been stationed for nearly 30 years, MoD said in a statement.
The guards are currently serving as part of 7th Armored Brigade, the Desert Rats, but in 2015 the regiment will become part of 51 (Scottish) Brigade.
Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Ben Cattermole, spoke to his soldiers in Kabul and said in part: “Since our last deployment on Challenger 2 in 2008, the regiment has continued to conduct armored training but has frequently re-roled to fulfill counter-insurgency and training operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, today, 75 years from when our predecessors first took to tank soldiering we will hand over our tanks and focus entirely on our future as Britain’s leading light cavalry regiment.”