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Challenger 3
Challenger 3 (CR3) is a British fourth-generation main battle tank in development for the British Army. It will be produced by the conversion of existing Challenger 2 tanks by the British/German Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land joint venture.
Improvements to Challenger 2 began in 2005 as the Capability And Sustainment Programme (CSP) to keep the Challenger 2 competitive until the 2030s. Lack of funding meant that it was not until 2014 that the programme was formally reorganised into the "Challenger 2 Life Extension Programme" (LEP). In response to the LEP programme, two prototypes were submitted for evaluation; one from BAE Systems in 2018 and the other from Rheinmetall in 2019. Later that year BAE and Rheinmetall merged their British operations into Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), effectively leaving Rheinmetall's proposal the only option available without replacing the Challenger 2 fleet with foreign models.
The Challenger 3 has an all-new turret and an improved hull. The most significant change from Challenger 2 to Challenger 3 is the replacement of the Challenger's main armament from a 120 mm L30A1 rifled main gun to the 120 mm L55A1 smoothbore gun (which itself is an upgraded version of the L55 fitted to the Leopard 2A6/A7 family of main battle tanks) giving commonality with other NATO members. Ammunition is to be developed in conjunction with Rheinmetall AG, with a new kinetic energy round being developed for Challenger 3 and Leopard 2.
The Challenger 3 core weight is expected to be about 66 tonnes (65 long tons; 73 short tons), but the weight of the deployable configuration is withheld for security reasons.
The initial entry into service of the Challenger 3 has been brought forward to 2025, not 2027 as originally planned. A total of 148 tanks are to be produced, with core development costs estimated at £906.9 million (US$1.17 billion). By early 2024, eight pre-production tanks had been delivered and trials had commenced in Germany. In January 2024, another contract was awarded to RBSL to provide a new modular armour system for Challenger 3.
In 2021 whole life costs were estimated to be £1.3 billion, but by 2024 the MOD internal budgeted estimate of whole life costs had increased to £1.99 billion which now includes the modular armour system and active protection system.
The Challenger 3 will be the fourth tank of this name, the first being the World War II Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger, which was developed from the Cromwell tank chassis and armed with a Ordnance QF 17-pounder. The second was the Gulf War-era Challenger 1, which was the British army's main battle tank (MBT) from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, when it was succeeded by the Challenger 2 which saw action during the Iraq War in 2003.
In 2005, the MOD recognised a need for a Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP) to extend the service life of the Challenger 2 into the mid-2030s and upgrade its mobility, lethality and survivability. The CSP was planned to be complete by 2020 and was to combine all the upgrades from CLIP (Challenger Lethality Improvement Programme), including the fitting of a 120 mm smoothbore gun. By 2014, the CSP had been replaced by the Life Extension Programme (LEP) which shared a similar scope of replacing obsolete components and extending the tank's service life from 2025 to 2035, however the 120 mm smoothbore gun had seemingly been abandoned. The development project, named "Armour MBT", was formally started in December 2014.
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Challenger 3 AI simulator
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Challenger 3
Challenger 3 (CR3) is a British fourth-generation main battle tank in development for the British Army. It will be produced by the conversion of existing Challenger 2 tanks by the British/German Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land joint venture.
Improvements to Challenger 2 began in 2005 as the Capability And Sustainment Programme (CSP) to keep the Challenger 2 competitive until the 2030s. Lack of funding meant that it was not until 2014 that the programme was formally reorganised into the "Challenger 2 Life Extension Programme" (LEP). In response to the LEP programme, two prototypes were submitted for evaluation; one from BAE Systems in 2018 and the other from Rheinmetall in 2019. Later that year BAE and Rheinmetall merged their British operations into Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), effectively leaving Rheinmetall's proposal the only option available without replacing the Challenger 2 fleet with foreign models.
The Challenger 3 has an all-new turret and an improved hull. The most significant change from Challenger 2 to Challenger 3 is the replacement of the Challenger's main armament from a 120 mm L30A1 rifled main gun to the 120 mm L55A1 smoothbore gun (which itself is an upgraded version of the L55 fitted to the Leopard 2A6/A7 family of main battle tanks) giving commonality with other NATO members. Ammunition is to be developed in conjunction with Rheinmetall AG, with a new kinetic energy round being developed for Challenger 3 and Leopard 2.
The Challenger 3 core weight is expected to be about 66 tonnes (65 long tons; 73 short tons), but the weight of the deployable configuration is withheld for security reasons.
The initial entry into service of the Challenger 3 has been brought forward to 2025, not 2027 as originally planned. A total of 148 tanks are to be produced, with core development costs estimated at £906.9 million (US$1.17 billion). By early 2024, eight pre-production tanks had been delivered and trials had commenced in Germany. In January 2024, another contract was awarded to RBSL to provide a new modular armour system for Challenger 3.
In 2021 whole life costs were estimated to be £1.3 billion, but by 2024 the MOD internal budgeted estimate of whole life costs had increased to £1.99 billion which now includes the modular armour system and active protection system.
The Challenger 3 will be the fourth tank of this name, the first being the World War II Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger, which was developed from the Cromwell tank chassis and armed with a Ordnance QF 17-pounder. The second was the Gulf War-era Challenger 1, which was the British army's main battle tank (MBT) from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, when it was succeeded by the Challenger 2 which saw action during the Iraq War in 2003.
In 2005, the MOD recognised a need for a Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP) to extend the service life of the Challenger 2 into the mid-2030s and upgrade its mobility, lethality and survivability. The CSP was planned to be complete by 2020 and was to combine all the upgrades from CLIP (Challenger Lethality Improvement Programme), including the fitting of a 120 mm smoothbore gun. By 2014, the CSP had been replaced by the Life Extension Programme (LEP) which shared a similar scope of replacing obsolete components and extending the tank's service life from 2025 to 2035, however the 120 mm smoothbore gun had seemingly been abandoned. The development project, named "Armour MBT", was formally started in December 2014.