Vickers MBT Mark 4

The Vickers Main Battle Tank Mark 4, later renamed the Vickers Valiant, was a British main battle tank developed by Vickers as a private venture for export between 1976 and January 1984. The first prototype, designed in 1977, combined Chobham composite armour with an aluminium hull in a vehicle of about 43 tonnes and carried a 105 mm L7 rifled gun. It was shown at the British Army Equipment Exhibition in 1980, and in 1982 it received a new Universal Turret with a 120 mm gun, which led Vickers to rename it the Valiant. Desert trials in the Middle East showed excellent firepower and fire control but poor mobility, and Vickers ended its marketing effort in July 1985, so the tank never entered production. The Universal Turret was reused on the Vickers Mark 7, and lessons from the programme fed into later British tank design. A Valiant 2 with a new suspension and engine was proposed but not built.