Any ideas what this is please??

[Tunnel_Rat]

drove down to the airfield earlier at Manston and came across this beast parked up, what is it please??

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q199/LFK_bucket/tank1.jpg

[Enigma]

I think its a Challenger

[sirhc]

It's a Challenger 1, owned by Terry Brooks.

[Richard Farrant]

I think its a Challenger

 

 

It would be Terry Brooks, prototype Challenger 1, most likely, as he is organising the weekend event there.

[Tunnel_Rat]

Cheers guys!

[Joris]

It's hard to tell what it is because it's so well covered up. Could be anything really.

[Mark]

It would be Terry Brooks, prototype Challenger 1, most likely, as he is organising the weekend event there.

 

 

Confirmed

[AlienFTM]

When I went to Bovvy last year I was surprised at how many Chieftain / Challenger clone variants there were on display.

 

Having sold Cent to the Israelis in the 60s and achieved a quantum leap in development from their ideas, HMG were very keen to do the same with Chieftain in the early 70s, but sadly, Middle East turmoil led to USG leaning on HMG to stop the sale of military hardware (presumbaly so they could sell them their own, but this isn't a political debate)

 

In the late 70s, the Shah of Iran commissioned 1200 tropicalised Chieftains with all the latest mods, to be called Lion of Persia (Shir Iran). At this point, RARDE at Chobham announced their new eponymous armour and the Shah promptly change his order to include said armour. The new vehicle was to be called Shir Iran 2.

 

Unfortunately, the Shah was overthrown and no way were the Shir 2s going to the Ayatollahs. This left HMG with 1200 tropicalised Chieftains with all the latest mods and nowhere to go. They were offered to the Royal Armoured Corps (which didn't number 1200 tanks anyway) and they were accepted. Director RAC decided to offer the men who would crew these vehicles the chance to name them (Lion of Persia was hardly apt and besides, traditionally our tank names tend to start with C. There were a number of option. I voted for Cavalier because I knew that Challenger had been used previously during WW2 to mount a 17pdr gun in an enlarged turret on a Cromwell (?) hull to create a tank destroyer. However the tankies' inferiority complex, due to their history only going back 60 years whereas the bulk of the RAC went back hundreds, led to Cavalier being rejected and Challenger being the winning name.

 

All the tropicalisation kit was removed because the RAC would only ever fight one war, on the North German Plain ... er, wouldn't they? ... and Challenger came into service.

 

In Sandpit Scrap 1, Challenger's shortcomings were quickly identified so that by the time Sandpit Scrap 2 came along, Challenger 2 (CR2) was in service.

 

Anyway, this is all beside the point. What I wanted to demonstrate was that work continuously takes place to develop new variants and incorporate new technologies on tanks. I have now become aware that numerous projects took place to make Chieftain best of breed (many, me included, will tell you that in its evolution as CR2, that has been achieved) and examples of many such wierd variants have ended up at Bovington. The name Chieftain 90 sticks in my mind; I also seem to recall a project to fit spaced aluminium armour all over Chieftain as a defence against HEAT rounds (e.g. RPG), which bears a striking superficial resemblance to CR2, but much lighter (and less-well protected against kinetic rounds).

 

For an explanation of the types of round used by and against tanks, see:

 

http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Sabot