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BOXING CLEVER?
THE GLOVES ARE OFF CHACR COMMENTARY // FEBRUARY 2026
BY: Sergio Miller, retired Intelligence Officer When the Russian tanks roll westward, what defence for you And me? Colonel Sloman’s Essex Rifles? The Light Horse of L.S.E? – Philip Larkin
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HIS Commentary contrasts the fortunes of two armies: the British Army and Spanish Army. I am halfSpanish and 40 years ago accompanied the Grenadier Guards company that undertook the first exchange visit to Spain of the postFranco era (while serving in Northern Ireland at the time; a welcome break from improvised explosive devices and shootings). It was the first occasion British troops had stood on Spanish soil since the Peninsular War and we were filmed by Spanish national television. What I saw in our
Iberian counterparts was a backward, poorly-equipped conscript army. One of the officers even apologised in embarrassment at the state of affairs. Today, a very different story can be told and this Commentary tells that tale through two procurements: ‘British Boxer’ (pictured above) and the Spanish VCR Dragón. A TALE OF TWO PROCUREMENTS At first glance more similarities than differences may be apparent in the programmes. Britain joined the German-Dutch Boxer programme in 1996. In 2003, it withdrew to pursue the unrealistic and prohibitively expensive Future Rapid Effects Systems programme, copying the US Future Combat Systems. Both projects sunk. For the next 15 years indecision reigned. Finally, in 2018, a chastened MOD
rejoined the Boxer programme. The Defence Select Committee has been highly critical of the Department’s failures over this period. Having lost the capacity to build wheeled armoured personnel carriers, KNDS Deutschland had to step in to set up a facility in Telford (today RBSL Telford), and subsequently at Stockport (KNDS UK, formerly WFEL Limited). In April 2022, the MOD finalised a deal for 623 Boxers valued at over £3.4 billion. Welding of the first ‘British Boxer’ vehicles in Telford started in 2023, but the first vehicles were not completed until 2025. At the time of writing, only training vehicles have been delivered to the Army. Twentynine years have passed. The VCR Dragón programme (originally Futuro Sistema de Combate Terrestre) started in 2007 but was postponed for
1 // THE GLOVES ARE OFF // CHACR
The author of this Commentary is a regular contributor to the Defence debate; he’s also a wellinformed retired Army officer who holds strong and clearly-expressed views. The subject of this Commentary (Defence procurement) is a hot topic, about which the CHACR receives a range of such observational and commentating articles and contributions. Defence procurement has become a subject of particular interest in the Army, and not just because of the surfeit of press coverage of such issues as the Ajax programme. The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Roly Walker, has made it clear that if the British Army, smaller than ever and fielding aged equipment, is to compete on the battlefield of the coming years (or, indeed, to deter enemies and potential enemies from seeking to compete on that battlefield) then it will need to keep up with the march of technology and its eversteepening development curve in a way that current practices make very difficult. In that context, we felt that it was appropriate to offer this Commentary as a contribution to that debate, as an example of those regular contributions that are offered to the CHACR on or around this subject. The views expressed, therefore, are the author’s.