Seven Challenger 3 prototype vehicles have been delivered for the Demonstration Phase trials programme, with an eighth in the final stages of build, and the vehicles are being used to demonstrate and assure the performance and safety of the tank in preparation for manufacture, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Correction 21/10/1990: this article originally said Challenger 3 was moving from a smoothbore gun to a rifled barrel. It is the other way round. Challenger 2 has the rifled gun and Challenger 3 has the smoothbore. The two were simply mixed up, and the text has been corrected. Thanks to the reader who pointed it out.
Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative member for Huntingdon, asked how many Challenger 3 tanks have been delivered to date, following an answer given on 8 September.
Luke Pollard, the Minister of State for Defence, said: “Seven Challenger 3 prototype vehicles have been delivered to date for use in the Demonstration Phase trials programme, with an eighth prototype vehicle in the final stages of build. These vehicles are being used to demonstrate and assure the performance and safety of the Challenger 3 capability in preparation for manufacture.”
Challenger 3 takes the hull of the existing Challenger 2 and gives it a new turret, a smoothbore gun firing NATO standard ammunition, modular armour, an active protection system and a new sighting and fire control fit. Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land is building the vehicles at Telford under a contract covering one hundred and forty eight tanks, and the first prototype rolled off the production line in 2024.
The Demonstration Phase is where the design is proved before the department commits to building the rest, and the programme needs eight prototypes to run the firing, mobility, electromagnetic and safety trials in parallel.
The move from a rifled gun to a smoothbore reverses decades of British practice and was driven by ammunition supply, since the rifled 120mm round Challenger 2 fires is made for no other army in NATO and the industrial base behind it had shrunk to almost nothing. Common ammunition means Challenger 3 can draw from allied stockpiles, which matters more now than it did when the choice was first debated.
Delivery of the full fleet runs towards the end of the decade, with an initial operating capability planned for 2027 and full operating capability by 2030, and the one hundred and forty eight tanks will equip two armoured regiments inside 3rd (UK) Division.
Britain operated nearly four hundred Challenger 2 at the start of the century, and the conversion programme covers fewer than half that number.
Slight correction Craig, “The move from the smoothbore gun to a rifled barrel reverses decades of British practice”
Other way round👍
This report can’t be right because I read on UKDJ comment section from guys in the know 😜 that the gear box doesn’t work on challenger 3 and it’s basically useless 😀
I’m sure someone will be along shortly to tell us why it’s shit and why we should have bought leopard or the T90 instead 😂
Not true the TURRET gearbox is not strong enough,one of the trails vehicles has done over 2000kms in tests so far so that doesn’t suggest an automotive gearbox problem does it?
With so many negative observations from various commentators, I hope these trials prove the idea of conversion has worked. Weight appears to be the most concerning issue and additional armour on the turret has created a few headaches, all this without a turtle frame fitted.
Current CR2 runs at 75t with full TSE fitted! If the CR3 turret already has the armour fitted that only leaves hull armour to be fitted as and when doesn’t it?
148 would do if there are other vehicles to complement it, which seems lacking if the upcoming cuts are true.
An overwatch vehicle has been mooted with Brimstone , where is it?
Theseb148 will need leapfrogging assets of drone jammers and anti drone defences if they are to deploy in a war, as demo’d by NATO exercises with Ukraine unite acting as the enemy.
148 might be viable but the supporting assets are going to need cash and lots of it.