UK's Main Battle Tank Challenger 2

FV4034 Challenger 2 is a British main battle tank (MBT) currently in service with the armies of the United Kingdom and Oman. It was designed and built by the British company Vickers Defence Systems (now known as BAE Systems Land and Armaments). The manufacturer advertises it as the world's most reliable main battle tank.As of January 2008, two Challenger 2s have been damaged in combat, and one destroyed by another Challenger 2 in a friendly fire incident.

Challenger 2 is an extensive redesign from Challenger 1, the MBT from which it was developed. It uses the basic hull and automotive parts of its predecessor but all other components are new. Fewer than 5% of components are interchangeable. Challenger 2 has now replaced Challenger 1 in service with the British Army and is also used by the Royal Army of Oman. It has seen operational service in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq (2003--present). During the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Challenger 2 tanks operating in the Gulf suffered no total losses to enemy fire. In one engagement a Challenger survived 14 hits from rocket-propelled grenades and one MILAN anti tank missile.

History
Challenger 2 is the third vehicle of this name, the first being the A30 Challenger, a Second World War design using the Cromwell tank chassis with a 17 pdr gun. The second was the Persian Gulf War era Challenger 1, which was the British army's main battle tank (MBT) from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Vickers Defence Systems (later Alvis Vickers, now BAE Systems Land Systems) began to develop a successor to Challenger 1 as a private venture in 1986. Following the issue of a Staff Requirement for a next-generation tank, Vickers formally submitted its plans for Challenger 2 to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Secretary of State for Defence George Younger announced to the House of Commons that Vickers would receive £90 million contract for a demonstrator vehicle, a deal that was consummated in January 1989.The demonstration phase contained three milestones for progress, with dates of September 1989, March 1990, and September 1990. At the last of these milestones, Vickers was to have met 11 key criteria for the tank's design.

In June 1991, after competition with other tank manufacturers' designs (including the M1A2 Abrams and the Leopard 2 (Improved)), the MoD placed a £520 million order for 127 MBTs and 13 driver training vehicles. An order for a further 259 tanks and 9 driver trainers (worth £800 million) was placed in 1994. Oman ordered 18 Challenger 2s in 1993 and a further 20 tanks in November 1997.

Production began in 1993 at two primary sites: Elswick, Tyne and Wear and Barnbow, Leeds, although over 250 subcontractors were involved. The first tanks were delivered in July 1994.

The Challenger 2 successfully completed its Reliability Growth Trial in 1994. Three vehicles were tested for 285 simulated battlefield days. Each day is known to have consisted of:

27 km of on-road travel
33 km of off-road travel
34 main armament rounds fired
1,000 7.62 MG rounds fired
16 h weapon system operation
10 h main engine idling
3.5 h main engine running

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

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[14th20thKRHkickass]

not bad, but the tank at 0:10 is a challenger 1 and most of the ammunition was not even British for instance, the tank at 1:00 is a merkava 4. But good vid though, as a crewman I can tell you its a fucking ace bit of kit

[TheGunner1324]

@spitfire690 what? lol speed? i see your not into this stuff but just to tell you friendly not critisising just the british challenger 2 uses a doctrine that favors armour over speed the US's current doctrine favors speed over armour but they are changing there doctrine from 2050 to the british doctrine as the armour doctrine is far superior

[DarkPrinceNH5570]

Challenger 2 max effective range and accuracy is better than the M1 Abram (usa)???

Yes it is... Great Britain has been known for its "ACCURACY" with projectiles.

Just a hunch on this haha.

Portugal Special Foces sends their BEST to UK for Sniper school too. (EU is 27 countries)

SAS has the best Sniper School too supposivly or they send them to the school there? Ya I kinda figured that.

[UKNationalAirsoft]

@spitfire690 its faster and more stable off road the abrams and leopard 2 are faster on road but are quite bumpy

[elbeavo11]

@spitfire690 2nd to what?

[spitfire690]

The ONLY reason why I rank this as second best tank in the world, is because it's just a bit slower, and has a slightly shorter driving range, other than that this thing is the other can that kick ass comes in.

[Whitecracka1324]

it probably has a smart car engine in it

[eazyr06]

checkin out the vids, got refused 5 years ago due to medical, goin back to get in this time, clean medical history now, cant wait ti get into one of these!

[megbulb]

i love the song

[TankNutDave]

Pretty poor video, you got a Challenger 1 at 0:13 and the pictures are off artillery and smoothbore rounds, not 3 part rifled rounds