Challenger 2 Tank: From a War Thunder Leak to Drone Warfare in Ukraine

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The FV4034 Challenger 2, a 64-ton British main battle tank, grew out of embarrassment. In 1987 the Challenger 1 finished dead last at the Canadian Army Trophy, NATO's most prestigious tank gunnery competition, and the UK studied buying the American M1 Abrams or the German Leopard 2 instead. To keep a domestic tank industry alive, the Thatcher government gave Vickers a £90 million development contract in December 1988. Vickers built nine prototypes on schedule by 1990, and long-range kills by Challenger 1 tanks in the Gulf War won the political support for production. The design kept a rifled L30A1 120mm gun so it could fire HESH rounds, stored its explosive charges apart from the projectiles, wore second generation Chobham armor known as Dorchester, and ran on a 26.1-liter Perkins V12 producing 1,200 horsepower.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, no Challenger 2 was lost to enemy fire. As the occupation went on in 2006 and 2007, an RPG-29 tandem warhead penetrated the lower front hull and badly injured a driver, and buried IEDs struck from below, so the Army added Theatre Entry Standard upgrades: explosive reactive armor, bar armor and electronic jammers. In early 2023 the UK became the first country to offer Western main battle tanks to Ukraine, sending 14 Challenger 2s to the 82nd Air Assault Brigade. At 71 tons the tank bogged down in the mud season, its rifled barrel wore out after about 500 rounds against roughly 1,500 for a NATO smoothbore, and its ammunition could not be shared with allies. By 2024 and 2025 several were destroyed or damaged by Kornet missiles, Lancet loitering munitions and FPV drones. An £800 million program with RBSL is now rebuilding 148 hulls as the Challenger 3.

• In 2021 a War Thunder player posted restricted Challenger 2 manual data on the game's forums to win an argument, and the developers refused to use it.
• HESH rounds do not pierce armor: the explosive flattens on the plate and the shockwave sends lethal spall flying inside the crew compartment.
• Every British tank since the Centurion carries a boiling vessel so the four-person crew can heat water and rations while sealed inside.
• In Basra, a Challenger 2 blinded by RPG hits threw a track into a ditch, and the tank was repaired and back in action six hours later.
• The Challenger 3 drops the rifled gun for a Rheinmetall 120mm smoothbore and adds digital architecture for active protection, with initial capability expected by 2027.