Challenger 2

The FV4034 Challenger 2 is a third generation British main battle tank, designed by Vickers Defence Systems as a private venture in 1986 and conceived as an extensive redesign of the same company's Challenger 1. Vickers began work on an Improved Challenger in November 1986 and presented it to the Ministry of Defence in March 1987, and the government chose the Vickers entry in December 1988 and gave it the Challenger 2 name. Nine prototypes were largely complete by August 1990. Production began in 1993 at Elswick in Tyne and Wear and Barnbow in Leeds, and the tank was formally accepted on 16 May 1994 and entered operational service with the British Army in 1998. It has a crew of four, a 120 millimetre L30A1 rifled gun and second generation Chobham armour, and is powered by a Perkins CV12-6A diesel engine delivering 1,200 brake horsepower. Oman ordered 38 of the tanks, delivered by 2001, and British tanks went to Ukraine in 2023. An upgraded design, the Challenger 3, is due to replace it from 2027.