Challenger 2 Tank of Great Britain

Challenger 2 Tank of Great Britain -  The challenger 2 is the Main Battle Tank currently in active service with United Kingdom. It was designed by BAE systems in 1986 and after years of research and development it was put to production in 1998.

Armor Protection –  Challenger 2 Tank is the most heavily armored and best protected tank in the world. The hull and turret of the tank is protected with the chobham armor which is twice the strength of military grade steel of same thickness and it is said to be protected against RPG 7 from point blank range and also protected to maximum extent from other anti-tank munitions. Challenger 2 Tank also comes with an option of Adding “Explosive Reactive Armor” bricks to further enhance its world leading protection. All this protection of Challenger 2 makes it only tank is the world which never gets destroyed in any battle during his whole life cycle to date. But this bulky armor makes the total weight of the Challenger 2 to 66 ton which brings it to the category of heavy tanks.

Mobility- Challenger 2 Tank is equipped with V 12 (12 cylinder arranged in V formation 6 on each side) Super charged diesel engine producing 1200 horsepower in total and this give the 66 ton tank a leading weight to power ratio of 20 Horse Power per Ton. Challenger 2 Tank has a top speed of 60 Km/hr on road and a range of 550 km with fuel tank of 1600 liters. The hydro-pneumatic suspension gives its superiority over the leaf spring suspension and provides it with the capability of cross-country speed of 50 km/hr in any type of terrain.

Fire power -  Challenger 2 Tank is provided with the 120 mm rifled main gun which can punch trough the toughest armor of the other tanks within the range of 5 km. The Challenger 2 Tank got the computerized fire-control system coupled with infrared range finder to hit the target accurately even 5 km away. Challenger 2 Tank got the stabilized main gun that provide it with the capability of firing its main gun with nice accuracy while the tank is moving in any direction . Challenger 2 Tank got one 7.62 mm commander Machine Gun and one 7.62 mm coaxial Machine Gun as a secondary weapon.

Limitation's -   Challenger 2 Tank is provided with world beating Armor protection and fierce Fire power but this make it as heavy as 66 ton due to which it relies on a nice civil infrastructure like strengthened bridges which can hold its weight and this decreases its mobility in a battle situation in less developed countries in which civil infrastructure is not that good. Moreover the production rate of Challenger 2 Tank is dead slow, there are only 450 of them produced and this possess the threat even if enemy got nice number of low quality tanks.