Since February 24, 2022, the British government has "through various methods" gotten rid of a total of 1,044 vehicles and 48 aircraft of various types that belonged to the British armed forces. Most of these items, precisely 667 units, were sold as scrap metal at auctions, the rest of the equipment was sold either under direct contracts to private companies or governments of other countries, or the status of this property is currently unknown — this category of equipment was classified as the "White Fleet & Miscellaneous."
Such data comes from the UK Defense Journal. And although it lacks important detail, for example, by no specific contract dates of or sale prices, we can still see some interesting items there.
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For example, if we look at the tables given above and below, we will see that over the past 2 years, the British government has written off all-terrain vehicles, armored vehicles, or trailers of the types that are already one way or another being used or could be useful to the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
The fact is all the more depressing considering that, due to the lack of equipment, Ukraine's military even went out into the civilian market to buy German Wiesel 3-ton tankettes.
In addition, there is mention that a certain amount of components for the Challenger and Challenger 2 main battle tanks was disposed of during the specified period, although probably a more rational use could be found for this resource. In particular, the Ukrainian Army operates Challenger 2 on the battlefields, which leads to all sorts of damage, and repairs need spare parts. As well as all those non-operational 667 vehicles and trailers that were sold as scrap.
Even if we assume that part of the equipment disposed of this way ultimately found its way to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of purchases by Ukrainian volunteers and charities, or by other means, it would still be much more efficient to transfer all this equipment directly to the Ukrainian military, since all sorts of bureaucratic and financial challenges slow down this process, when done by unofficial parties.
As for the list of 48 aircraft scrapped and sold by the UK over the past 2 years, there are nuances to consider. By and large, of those listed in this category, only the E-3 Sentry could be of practical and real value for the Ukrainian forces: 5 of them are categorized as sold.
Public data says Great Britain traded three E-3 Sentries to Chile in 2022. Janes specified, referring to sources in the Chilean Air Force, that one of the aircraft would be used for spare parts, and the other two continue to be utilized for their intended purpose. Notably, this happened at a time when the British media wrote about the need to supply AWACS-class aircraft to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
As for when the UK managed to sell another two AWACS, no indications in open sources. They could be taken from older storage and sold as spare parts.
All the other types of aircraft cited in the decommission list are already unusable, so discarding and selling them was the only right option. Even if we take, for example, the BAE 146 which was flown by the British royal family. Additionally, neither Harrier nor Tucano as of 2021 were in service with the UK armed forces, those most probably were non-operational when disposed of.
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