Armoured regiment ( United Kingdom ) The Type 58 and 44 armoured regiments are two organisations currently provided by the Royal Armoured Corps of the British Army . They are a battalion - sized formations equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks . As the likelihood of a major Cold War confrontation died down , and the Army has been deployed to lower - intensity conflicts , the role of heavy armour has become less well - defined , focusing more on infantry co - operation and support rather than pure armoured conflict . Current use as of the 2003 Defence Review . Following the 2003 Defence Review , five regular army regiments are equipped for the heavy armoured role : Of the five regiments , two are currently assigned to 1st ( UK ) Armoured Division ( The Queen ' s Royal Hussars and The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards ) and three to 3rd ( UK ) Mechanised Division ( The Royal Dragoon Guards , 2nd Royal Tank Regiment and The King ' s Royal Hussars ) . Type 58 armoured regiments ; Heavy armoured regiments ; Two regiments of the Territorial Army , the Royal Wessex Yeomanry and the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry , provide replacement crews for the regular regiments . The 1st Royal Tank Regiment also operates a small number of Challenger 2 tanks for training and demonstration . That role has since ended with the move towards Army 2020 . Organisation . The basic combat organisation of an armoured regiment is four armoured squadrons ( or " Sabre squadrons " ) , each of four troops of three Challenger 2 tanks . The squadron headquarters has two tanks , for a total of fourteen per squadron , along with a Spartan APC and a utility truck ; each squadron also has a medical detachment with a Samaritan ambulance and a fitter section with various recovery vehicles . The regimental headquarters has a further two Challenger 2 tanks , for a total of fifty - eight in the regiment , as well as five Sultan command vehicles and a small group of utility vehicles . In addition to this , each armoured regiment has a reconnaissance squadron with eight Scimitars . Of the five armoured regiments , two have the full four - squadrons structure , whilst three have the fourth squadron replaced by one equipped with an Interim Medium Armour Squadron , equipped with twelve Scimitars . History . The first armoured regiments - known at the time as " tank battalions " - were formed in the First World War , first in the Machine Gun Corps and later as the Tank Corps . Each battalion had three companies , each of three sections of four tanks , for a combat strength of thirty - six tanks ; a further twelve were kept in reserve for training and replacement purposes . A total of twenty - six battalions were formed during the war , quickly reduced to four battalions after the end of hostilities . By the late Second World War there were four armoured regiments in each armoured division . While three of the regiments were equipped with the Sherman medium tank , the Reconnaissance Regiment of the division was equipped with the Cromwell tank . As they became available Sherman Firefly tanks replaced one regular Sherman in each troop , and then later a second would be replaced . Each regiment was formed of four squadrons , A , B , C and HQ . The lettered squadrons were made up of four troops of four tanks and an HQ troop . The HQ squadron was made up of command tanks and a reconnaissance troop of light tanks . In north - west Europe , during the battle of Normandy from June to August 1944 , anti - aircraft tanks were part of the HQ squadron . The 1998 Strategic Defence Review cut the number of armoured regiments to six , converting one of the existing regiments to the formation reconnaissance role and using the other to form the Joint Chemical , Biological , Radiation and Nuclear Regiment . As a part of this change , the six remaining regiments were expanded from a three - squadron structure with 38 tanks to a four - squadron one with 58 . This structure is also known as the " Type 58 " regiment . Under the 2003 Defence White Paper , this was reduced to five armoured regiments - the sixth converting to the formation reconnaissance role - with three armoured squadrons to be converted to " light armoured " squadrons which would eventually be equipped with the Future Rapid Effect System . Future . In the future , the size of the Armoured Regiments will be reduced to a Type 56 Armoured Regiment . Only three regiments will be armed with the Challenger 2 tank . The organisation of a Type 56 Armoured Regiment is :