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In September 2019, the former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt suddenly stated that he would repay 400 million pounds of debt to Iran. In fact, this debt can be the earliest. It dates back to the Pahlavi dynasty 40 years ago, when Pahlavi paid an advance of 400 million pounds to Britain for the development of the Iranian Lion tank transformed from the chief battle tank.
However, as the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown with the arrival of the Iranian Revolution, the Iranian Lion Project was forced to terminate, and the money was naturally hacked by the British. Later, based on the Iranian Lion 2. The Challenger 1 main battle tank was developed, so it can be counted as one if the Challenger 1 can appear as an Iranian.
Since then, the Iranian government has not given up on dunning the money, and even directly filed a lawsuit in the British court, and finally waited for the clear statement from the British side at the end of 2019. So how did Iran Lion 2 become Challenger 1? There are really many stories in this.
▲The Chief MK5/5P main battle tank is still being equipped by the Iranian army, but the engine is replaced by a V-type B-46 4-stroke water-cooled multi-fuel engine equipped with T-72. As for The engine of British tanks has always been a big problem. The latest Challenger 2 also has this problem. However, the conservative British have always paid attention to firepower and protection. As for maneuvering, it was put in the last place
The abruptly suspended Iranian lion project
In the 1970s, King Pahlavi of Iran purchased more than 700 Chief MK3 and Chief MK5 main battle tanks from the United Kingdom, but the Iranians discovered these tanks in later use. Can not meet their combat needs in the desert.
So Iran asked the British to upgrade the existing chief battle tank, focusing on replacing it with a 1,200-horsepower diesel engine and a new transmission. If the requirements are met, large quantities will be purchased. Driven by the interests, the British immediately launched the upgrade and transformation work. On the basis of the Chief MK5, they replaced it with a more advanced power control TN12 automatic transmission device and increased the capacity of the fuel tank. This is the FV4030/1 project. But the horsepower of the project did not reach the 1,200 horsepower required by the Iranians.
▲ The result of the FV4030/2 project, which was later the Iranian Lion 1, can be seen on the top of the large-scale observation tower of the commander, and the later Iranian Lion 2 cancelled this design Later, after the Leeds factory lost the Iranian order, it sold the upgraded FV4030/2 to Jordan. This is Jordan’s Khalid main battle tank
after experiencing the FV4030/2 (that is, the Iranian Lion 1) After the technical accumulation of the project, the British finally came up with the FV4030/3 project (that is, the Iranian Lion 2) that satisfied the Iranians.
Iran Lion 2 is equipped with a brand new L11A5 120mm rifled gun. After electroslag fusion and heat treatment, the strength of the gun has been greatly increased. It can withstand greater chamber pressure and can launch sliding air-tight ammunition with a stable tail. There are as many as 7 types of ammunition including shell armor-piercing projectiles, rotating stable shelling armor-piercing projectiles, hollow-charged armor-piercing projectiles, and broken armor projectiles.
▲The FV4030/3 Iran Lion 2 tank is very similar to the Challenger 1 in appearance.
The power is replaced with Rolls-Royce’s CV12TCA diesel The engine has a horsepower of more than 1200 horsepower, and a thermal heater is installed inside, which can overcome the difficulty of starting the engine and the large working load of some parts. The cooling device has also been replaced with a mixed-flow fan cooling system to effectively reduce noise At the same time, power loss can be reduced.
is also equipped with a new TN37 integrated transmission system and mechanical suspension device. When driving in a straight line, all power of the transmission device is input to the side transmission devices on both sides through the transmission mechanism. The power is transmitted in two ways when turning. Finally, the steering power and variable speed are divided into road wheels through the side transmission device. The combination of new engines and transmissions can greatly improve the lack of mobility of the previous Chieftain series main battle tanks.
▲The status of an FV4030/3 Iran Lion 2 prototype with the Chobam composite armor removed, I have to say that the status of this prototype is really miserable.
The body and the turret of the protection are both It is welded and installed with detachable Chobham composite armor. This armor can be called the British black technology in the 1970s. It is composed of multiple layers of materials with different characteristics. It can be protected according to different parts. The requirements and the structure of the car body are made into different shapes and fixed on the car body and turret.
At that time, the British army used NATO standard targets to test the new composite armor. It failed to penetrate when using 120mm shelling armor-piercing projectiles, armor-piercing projectiles, and shattered armor projectiles, but fired at the same distance and the same thickness. When the homogeneous steel armor is completely penetrated.
But the good times did not last long. When the British were about to make a fortune, the Iranian revolution broke out, and the Pahlavi dynasty stepped down. These Iranian Lions 2 that have not yet been delivered suddenly lost customers. This was the scene of Iran collecting debts from Britain at the beginning of the article.
▲In fact, after the birth of the Chobham composite armor, the British conducted a demonstration on their own Chief MK5. This is the later FV4211, and in order to reduce self-weight, the British have a lot of on the tank The MBT-80
, which used aluminum alloy material
, had no choice but to dismount. In fact, as early as the early 1970s, Germany and the United Kingdom planned to jointly develop a main battle tank, but there were big differences of opinion between the two sides. People desperately needed a tank to replace the chief, and Germany had a Leopard II tank development project at the time, just wanting to use this opportunity to verify and obtain advanced technology.
Such as the British Chobham composite armor and turretless design. In the end, the two sides broke up. Germany continued to engage in Leopard II. The British, who could not help it, came up with an MBT-80 project (that is, FV4601). I only found a report in a domestic magazine in 1979 about this tank. That is,
In addition to the 120mm rifled gun and Chobam composite armor, one of the biggest features of the car is that it is equipped with a Rolls-Royce CV-12 engine, which can provide 1,500 horsepower. , The gross tonnage is much lighter than the later challengers.
It can be seen that MBT-80 began to pay attention to the maneuverability of the tank. This is a big change compared with the Chiefs and Challenger series main battle tanks, which are the first in firepower, second in protection, and third in mobility. . Moreover, the MBT-80 and the Iranian Lion project are carried out at the same time. The British intend to use the more advanced MBT-80 for themselves and then export the Iranian Lion 2 to make money, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
However, the Iranian Revolution at the end of 1979 completely cut off the idea of the British. Because the Iranian Lion 2 was hopeless, the British simply could not maintain these two projects at the same time without money, so the British gave up after weighing the pros and cons. The MBT-80 which is in the early stage of the project.
, but on the basis of the existing Iranian Lion 2 combined with part of the MBT-80 technology to develop a new generation of British main battle tanks, which is later FV4030/4 Challenger main battle tank (the name Challenger 1 was born after Challenger 2 came out).
▲ The first prototype of MBT-80. The chassis of this car is directly taken from the Iran Lion 2. The picture above is the picture with additional armor installed, and the picture below shows the additional armor removed. Armored pictures, the car is currently in the hands of a private collector, and the current situation is quite miserable, and the artillery of the prototype car is only an alternative material of equal quality, mainly used to verify the walking and protection capabilities of the BMT-80 main battle tank
▲The second prototype of MBT-80. The chassis of this car is manufactured independently. Because MBT-80 emphasizes mobility, the chassis uses a large amount of aluminum alloy materials during its manufacture. It is to verify the protection and maneuverability of the car body under the condition of weight reduction. The tank plans to install an EXP-28M1/2 120mm rifled gun. It can be seen from this code that this gun was still in experiment. Phase
Temporary challenger 1
In 1977, Leeds Armory officially produced the FV4030/4 Challenger 1 main battle tank prototype and signed a production contract with the British government in the following year. By March 1983 The Challenger 1 main battle tank officially entered service in the British Army.
In fact, we can know from the above that the launch of the Challenger 1 project is somewhat suspected of catching ducks on the shelves. The first is firepower. Challenger 1 uses a modified L11A5 120mm rifled gun, which reduces the barrel. Because the L11A5 120mm rifled gun of the early chieftain had the problem that the barrel was easily deformed at rest, and the muzzle wobbled during travel, at the same time, the barrel pressure was increased in order not to reduce the muzzle velocity of the ammunition.
has added the L23A1 tail stabilized armor-piercing projectile with tungsten carbide core in the ammunition. The rest are conventional rotating stable armor-piercing projectiles, broken armor projectiles, smoke screen projectiles and training projectiles. The vehicle has a total of 64 rounds. People prefer armor-breaking bullets to armor-piercing bullets because they think that the after-effect of armor-piercing bullets is not great.
▲British L23A1 tail stabilized armor-piercing projectile. In fact, the projectile is a short projectile with a core length-to-diameter ratio of about 14 and a small lifting space. In theory, it is a rod-type armor-piercing projectile. The aspect ratio and quality should be the larger the better, because the energy consumed to penetrate the armor increases with the increase in the volume of the perforation. In general, the bullet core should be as long as possible, but the L23A1 can only be regarded as one A short bullet, the power is not worse than the long rod armor-piercing bullet of the same generation, but it is not much better.
Next is the fire control of Challenger 1 which has been criticized the most. The main battle tanks of the same era have been When the command ritual fire control is generally equipped, Challenger 1 is still using the old disturbance fire control. The biggest feature of the disturbance fire control is that the line of sight follows the artillery. The biggest feature of the command ritual fire control is that the artillery follows the artillery. Line of sight.
The former needs to constantly adjust the muzzle to point to the target, while the latter means that as soon as the line of sight arrives, the muzzle will be in place. The latter is much higher than the former in terms of reaction ability and shooting accuracy, and the artillery is rotating. There is no need for high stability in the middle, because stabilizing a scope is far more cost-effective than stabilizing a gun (so the command ritual fire control is also called image stabilization fire control).
Insufficient fire control is also an important reason for the British development of Challenger 2 in 1986. In addition, the early Challenger 1 used low-light night vision, and was not equipped with TOGS thermal imaging observation shooting system until later.
▲The L11A5 gun is equipped with a muzzle reference instrument and a thermal sheath. In addition, there is a curved-firing periscope on the right side of the turret. Because the accuracy and range of the 120 rifled gun are extremely high, it can occasionally comeback. Click on the howitzer. In addition, the thermal imaging sight of Challenger 1 is installed inside the armored box on the right side of the turret, so it is inconvenient to use. When the challenger 2 is reached, the gunner’s thermal imaging sight is moved to the gun shield so that it can interact with the gun. On one axis (as shown below)
is also powered by a Rolls-Royce V-type 12-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine of 1200 horsepower (at this time Perkins Engine Company is responsible for It is produced, but it is the same product as the engine of the Iranian Lion 2), the unit power is 20 horsepower per ton, which is lower than the three generations of tanks of the same generation. After all, the design idea is that the mobile platoon is the last, and the difference is excusable. The
transmission adopts the TN37 integrated transmission system of the Iran Lion 2 mentioned above. There are a total of 4 forward gears and 3 reverse gears. However, the TN37 transmission device frequently fails during the subsequent use. Later, it was replaced with a TN54 transmission which was improved from TN37. There are 6 forward gears and 2 reverse gears. There is no major difference in structure between the two.
is a fully automatic transmission gearbox and adopts a regenerative double-differential hydrostatic steering mechanism. In addition, the Challenger 1 main battle tank is equipped with a non-adjustable liquid-pneumatic suspension, so that a small number of independently installed road wheels can be Damaged, the tank can barely drive.
▲Challenger 1 main battle tankIt’s worth mentioning that the entire power pack can be quickly replaced within 45 minutes, and there is also a small diesel engine installed inside it to provide assistance when the main engine stops working. Vehicle power supply
The protection is naturally the life-saving Chobham composite armor, plus the protection was ranked second at the beginning of the design, so the challenger 1 main battle tank has excellent protection capabilities. This also makes many people jokingly claim that the Challenger series main battle tank will only rely on Joe Bam to hold his head and squat against black guns.
This kind of armor with several layers of honeycomb ceramic material between two layers of steel plates can effectively defend against the attacks of armor-piercing projectiles and armor-piercing projectiles. The energy of armor-piercing projectiles will be greatly consumed when passing through these materials with different characteristics. The rod armor-piercing projectile will also deviate or even break, and its protection capability is several times that of homogeneous steel armor.
In addition, the three-proof device and the explosion suppression device are also complete. The turret rotation adopts all-electric drive instead of the more flammable hydraulic drive. Moreover, the L11A5 main gun of Challenger 1 uses sub-loaded ammunition, which has a low rate of fire but is safe. All the cartridges are stored in a fire box. The fire box is composed of multiple fire sleeves, and the fire sleeves are filled with extinguishing agent. .
▲The ammunition storage inside the chief battle tank is basically the same for the Challenger 1 fire box. When the fragment penetrates the outside of the fire jacket, the entrance will be sealed under the pressure of the internal action. When the inside of the fire jacket is penetrated, the fire retardant will immediately flow into
. In fact, whether it is Challenger 1 or Challenger 2, British tanks have always been the object of everyone to complain. The conservative design and rigid thinking seem to have already withdrawn. The battleships on the historical stage are mediocre. Coupled with the closure of the tank production line by the United Kingdom, as the hometown of tanks, the future of the development of tanks in Britain is really worrying.
Sister Harley WeChat
MilitaryGO
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