Challenger 2

Britain’s last domestically designed main battle tank — a 62.5-tonne armoured behemoth whose rifled 120 mm gun sets it apart from every other NATO tank in the field.

Overview

The FV4034 Challenger 2 is the sole main battle tank of the British Army, fielded from 1998 to replace the Chieftain/Challenger 1 line. Built around a crew of four and a cast/welded turret with advanced Chobham-type armour, the type carries the 120 mm L30A1 rifled gun — the only such weapon still in Western front-line MBT service. Although exceptionally protected, the Challenger 2’s modest 1,200 hp powerpack gives it a lower power-to-weight ratio than its European peers, and the fleet is now being converted to the smoothbore-armed, digitised Challenger 3 standard.

Development

Challenger 2 was designed by Vickers Defence (later BAE Systems) as a clean-sheet evolution of the Challenger 1, which had proven rugged but technically troubled in the 1991 Gulf War. The new tank retained the basic hull architecture but replaced almost every internal system, from the fire-control suite to the Dorchester-level armour package. The British Army accepted the type into service in 1998 and received its full order of approximately 408 vehicles, while Oman purchased a further 38 examples, as noted by Army Technology. The tank has remained in continuous service since, although the UK fleet is now being drawn down in favour of the Challenger 3 upgrade programme.

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