Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Challenger 2 tanks (a) have been sold by the Defence Equipment Sales Authority or its predecessors, (b) have been placed in long-term storage and (c) are still in operational service.
I can confirm that no Challenger 2 tanks have been sold by the Defence Equipment Sales Authority or its predecessors. At present, 75 CR2 are held in long term storage.
Of the British Army's current operational fleet of 227 Challenger 2 tanks, a proportion are held in storage at readiness but for reasons of security, we are unable to provide detail on numbers.