defense

What will the Challenger 3 Tank bring to the British Army?

The new tank developed by the UK will be a tank that is resistant to all weather conditions, accurate, direct fire and anti-armour manoeuvre capabilities of the British Army for 24 hours a day.

The new tank developed by the UK will be a tank that is resistant to all weather conditions, accurate, direct fire and anti-armour manoeuvre capabilities of the British Army for 24 hours a day. The Challenger 3 will also feature an overall tank architecture and new digital crew stations. The gross weight of the tank will be one tonne more (66 tonnes) than the previous model. The tank will have a four-man crew consisting of a commander, a gunner, a loader and a driver.

The fully digitised tank will enable interoperability with other armoured vehicles in task forces and battle groups, as well as multi-dimensional integration for data sharing. Designed to handle multi-dimensional warfare, the tank will also be capable of operating in littoral environments to support the future command power of the Royal Marines.

The Challenger 3 tank will be equipped with improved long-range commander and artillery sights with automatic target tracking, Wide Area Search and Detection (WASAD) capability and day and thermal modes for day and night operations. The tank's electronic and electrical architectures will support future upgrades to provide significant growth potential in the coming decades.

Enhancements to the British Army's main battle tank, including extra firepower and state-of-the-art protection systems, will ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of tank design and is ready to respond to future global threats and challenges.

The British army will be transformed to be more lethal, better protected and better connected than any of its peers, British General Staff sources are quoted as saying. The Challenger 3 tank will be a manifestation of this change and will be at the heart of the army's combat capability. Its digital open architecture will enable it to be integrated into the battlefield, its main weapons will outclass its rivals and its crew will be provided with an unrivalled level of protection.

Today, every nation's main battle tank is threatened by more systems than ever before. This has led the UK to develop a new modular armour capable of defeating even the toughest threats. As part of the layered protection system, the new tank will be the first to carry the best active protection system, allowing it to recognise and neutralise incoming threats. The tank will be subjected to full electromagnetic testing to ensure that it can survive on the toughest battlefields.

British defence ministry sources say that the new Challenger's features could improve communication and data sharing with other vehicles and ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) vehicles such as drones during future deployments. As main battle tanks are ‘vulnerable’ to ISTAR technologies, the evolution of the Challenger is highly significant.

Although the layout in terms of crew roles is very traditional, the improved fire control system will make the tank more lethal. Improved protection will give the tank crew greater survivability should they engage in combat against other heavy armoured vehicles or forces with a significant anti-armour capability.

Some experts, however, characterise the production of the new Challenger 3 tanks as long overdue in comparison with developments in anti-tank technology. Moreover, according to the contracts concluded, only 148 tanks will be produced. The ‘low’ number of tanks will limit the UK's deterrence capability to NATO.