Re: Iran\'s Past
There are two things that may make more tanks necessary past the Challenger era: 1000 tanks may be overambitious as an order, leading to numbers being cut down at some point, and 1000 are probably not going to be enough for the whole army.
Bear in mind that to this day, the IRIA is reported to number something between 350 000 and 500 000 active personal (Pasdaran included), as opposed to probably nearly 1 million in the 70s (350 000 left with 65% desertion rate reported in 1979, grain of salt not included). Even with these figures, reports give between 1600 and 1700 tanks in current service.
I don't know how many tank units were in active service before the revolution, but with such a force, I'd say 1000 tanks is only enough for maybe the best half of the armored units. Like in many countries, rear-echelon units, mech divisions and the like would go on running with older material for some time. And it's this material that would stand replacement or upgrade in the 90s-2000s.
I agree that the British Army would certainly go for the Challenger as well at some point, but I wouldn't call Iran buying a full batch of Challenger-2s later on 100% certain.
Anyways original Challengers with regular updates would be enough to hold the high ground against any neighbor to this day and for the foreseeable future. So buying a new full batch of Leo2A5/M1A2/Challenger2/Leclerc generation in the 90s may not be top priority. We should probably look or a later replacement like what the Turks look like going for these days (i.e. brand new 4th-generation tank).
Point remains about what to do for the rest of the tank fleet. That's where cheap surplus Leo2s and M-60 upgrade packs come in play. There should be at least 500 60s tanks to replace, upgrade and/or convert. Of these quantities (maybe there were significantly more of them before the war?), about 1/3 is Chieftains, 1/3 M-47/48 and 1/3 M-60s, all pre-revolution.
IDK how many of those would remain in service after the introduction of the Challenger, but there would certainly be some pending upgrade
|