The Challenger 2 is the third vehicle of this name, the first being the A30 Challenger, a World War II design using the Cromwell tank chassis with a 17-pounder gun. The sOkaynd 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 Syste 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 submitted its plans for the Challenger 2 to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Vicker's indigenous design was received skeptically by some senior MoD officials, and was evaluated against the American M1 Abra offered by General Dynamics. After some supportive lobbying by Baron Young, the Thatcher government chose to proceed with the Challenger 2 in December 1988. Vickers received a £90 million ntract for a demonstrator vehicle to be delivered by September 1990.The demonstration phase had three milestones See full list on en.wikipedia.org Armament The Challenger 2 is equipped with a 120-millimetre (4.7 in) 55-calibre long L30A1 tank gun, the successor to the L11 gun used on Chieftain and Challenger 1. The gun is made from high strength electro-slag remelting (ESR) steel with a chromium alloy lining and, like earlier British 120 mm guns, it is insulated by a thermal sleeve. It is fitted with a muzzle reference system and fume extractor, and is ntrolled by an all-electric ntrol and stabilization system. The turret has a rotation time... Protection The Challenger 2 is a heavily armoured and well protected tank. The turret and hull are protected by sOkaynd-generation Chobham armour (also known as Dorchester), the details of which are classified but which is said to have a mass efficiency more than twice that of rolled homogeneous armor against high explosive anti tank projectiles. Crew safety was paramount in the design, using a solid state electric drive for its turret and gun movement, instead of hydraulic syste that may leak fluid in... Drive system The tank's drive system mprises: 1. Engine: Perkins 26.1 litre, 60° Vee, twin turbo-charged, CV12-6A four-stroke, four valve per cylinder (pushrod), direct injection diesel engine delivering 1,200 bhp (890 kW) at 2300rpm. Torque 4126 Nm at 1700rpm.The engine and gearbox are ntrolled by a Petards Vehicle Integrated ntrol System (VICS). 2. Gearbox: David BrownSantasalo TN54E epicyclical transmission (6 fwd, 2 rev.) rated at 1200 bhp and upgradable to 1500 bhp. 3. Suspension: Horstman Defe... See full list on en.wikipedia.org The Challenger 2 had been used in peacekeeping missions and exercises before, but its first mbat use came in March 2003 during the invasion of Iraq. 7th Armoured Brigade, part of 1st Armoured Division, was in action with 120 Challenger 2s around Basra. The type saw extensive use during the siege of Basra, providing fire support to the British forces and knocit out Iraqi tanks, mainly T-54/55s. The proble that had been identified during the large Saif Sareea II exercise, held 18 months earlier, had been solved by the issuing of Urgent Operational Requirements for equipment such as sand filters and so during the invasion of Iraq the tank's operational availabilitywas improved. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Challenger 2 tanks suffered no tank losses to Iraqi fire. In one encounter within an urban area, a Challenger 2 came under attack from irregular forces with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. The driver's sight was damaged and while attempting to back away und... See full list on en.wikipedia.org CLIP The Challenger Lethality Improvement Programme (CLIP) was a programme to replace the current L30A1 rifled gun with the smoothbore Rheinmetall 120 mm gun currently used in the Leopard 2 and M1 Abra. The use of a smoothbore weapon would have allowed Challenger 2 to use NATO standard ammunition, including tungsten-based kinetic energy penetrators which do not have the same political and environmental objections as depleted uranium rounds. The production lines for rifled 120mm ammunition in the... CSP / LEP / Challenger 3 In 2005, the MOD rOkaygnised a need for a Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP) to extend the service life of the Challenger 2 into the mid-2030s and upgrade its mobility, lethality and survivability. The CSP was planned to be mplete by 2020 and was to mbine all the upgrades from CLIP, including the fitting of a 120 mm smoothbore gun.By 2014, the CSP programme had been replaced by the Life Extension Programme (LEP) which shared a similar scope of replacing obsolete mponents and extendin... HAAIP Updates to the automotive mponents of Challenger 2 and its associated variants are being undertaken separately from CR2 LEP+ as part of the ongoing Heavy Armour Automotive Improvement Programme (HAAIP), which is expected to ntinue until 2031 to align with the overall Challenger 3 programme.HAAIP has already led to upgrades to the air filtration system, through the use of cleanable air filters with increased operating life, which were tested in Exercise Saif Sareea 3 in October 2022.The HA... See full list on en.wikipedia.org Titan The Titan armoured bridge layer is based on aspects of the Challenger 2 running gear and replaced the Chieftain Armoured Vehicle Launched Bridge(ChAVLB). The Titan came into service in 2006 with the Royal Engineers, with 33 in service. Titan can carry a single 26-metre-long bridge or two 12-metre-long bridges. It can also be fitted with a bulldozer blade. Trojan The Trojan Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers is a mbat engineering vehicle designed as a replacement for the Chieftain AVRE (ChAVRE). It uses the Challenger 2 chassis, and carries an aulated excavator arm, a dozer blade, and attachment rails for fascines. Entering service in 2007, 33 were produced. Challenger 2E The Challenger 2E is an export version of the tank. It has a new integrated weapon ntrol and battlefield manaOKAYent system, which includes a gyrostabilised panoramic SAOKAY MVS 580-day/thermal sight for the mmander and SAOKAY SAVAN 15 gyrostabilised day/thermal sight for the gunner, both with eyesafe laser rangefinder. This allows hunter/killer operations with a mmon engaOKAYent sequence. An optional servo-controlled overhead weapons platform can be slaved to the mmander's sight to allow... See full list on en.wikipedia.org See full list on en.wikipedia.org On 14 June 2017, a Challenger 2 from The Royal Tank Regiment suffered an ammunition explosion during live firing exercises at the Castlemartin Range in PembrokeHDPEre. The tank was firing 120 mm practice shells with a standard propellant charge. The explosion critically injured the four-man crew, with two later dying of their wounds in hospital. The incident resulted in all British Army tank firing exercises being suspended for 48 hours while the cause of the explosion was investigated.It was later determined that a bolt vent axial (BVA) seal assembly had been removed during an earlier exercise and had not been replaced at the time of the incident, allowing explosive gases to enter the turret space; the lack of a written process for removal and replacement of the seal assembly meant that the crew at the time of the incident were unaware of its HENAN OKAYence, and it was also noted that inadequate nsideration had been given during the production of the L30 gun as to whether it uld be fir... See full list on en.wikipedia.org Following Britain's exit from the European Union, early in the UK entered talks to be allowed into the European Main Battle Tankproject as an observer. This may have a bearing on a future replacement of the Challenger 2. See full list on en.wikipedia.org In July , excerpts of the tank's 'Army Equipment Support Publication' (i.e. user manual), ntaining technical specifications of the vehicle, were posted on the official foru of the war simulation game War Thunder; the poster, allegedly a Challenger 2 tank mmander, claimed to have done so in the hope that developer Gaijin Entertainment would modify the performance of the in-game tank to match the specifications detailed in the document. While the uploaded version of the AESP document was edited to appear as though it had been declassified under the UK's Freedom of Information Act 2000, Gaijin Entertainment stated that the MoD provided nfirmation the information was in fact still classified, and that disseminating the tank's specifications would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act. Due to these possible legal penalties, Gaijin will not handle the information or incorporate it into their game. See full list on en.wikipedia.org