Across the Atlantic, the British Army’s Challenger 3 battle tank is a bully setting new standards for tank warfare. This weapon of the week is the latest evolution of British tanks with significant firepower upgrades.
Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land built the tank in Telford, England. The British Army already commissioned eight prototypes and ordered a new fleet of 147 tanks total.
The tank weighs 66 tons and can carry a crew of four. Challenger 3 also comes equipped with a new turret, improved hull and upgraded armor.
The main new feature is the new Smoothbore high-pressure gun. Paired with the correct ammunition, it can now engage with enemy troops located over 5,000 meters, more than three miles, away.
“In terms of the lethality, we’re pairing the latest 120 millimeter smoothbore gun, high pressure gun, and we’re pairing that with the most lethal ammunition available, so this will be one of the most lethal tanks in here,” Col. William Waugh, the program director for the Armour Programme, said. “All of this is capped off with a new set of sets of sighting systems that allows us to direct that authority with with much greater precision 24 hours a day, and overall whole capability is total step change to what we currently have.”
The Challenger 3 can fire the newest armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding Sabot rounds, high-explosive anti-tank rounds and programmable airburst munitions. The versatility with ammunition allows crews to engage with a wide variety of targets.
The tank does run on the pricey end of battlefield equipment; it costs $5 million to produce each one.
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