The lauded British Challenger 2 main battle tank runs the risk of proving an entirely useless acquisition for the Ukrainian frontline, due to a whole host of technical shortcomings. This is the conclusion reached by the reviewers of American Military Watch.
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According to the analysts, it may be about such disadvantages of the British equipment as the use of rifled gun, the lack of dynamic protection on the hull, as well as the absence of fragmentation shells and modern thermal imagers.
“These shortcomings could minimise the tank’s real utility on the battlefield, especially given how strong Ukraine’s expectations of the British fighting vehicle’s appearance on the front line are.”
Kiev hopes that the first batch of this type of equipment will arrive in Ukraine as early as next month, but the degree of suitability of the British tanks remains highly questionable,” the paper wrote.
The Challengers’ use of rifled guns, as opposed to their modern Russian counterparts, can significantly bring down the level of power and accuracy of ammunition, and also limit the compatibility with shells of other Western vehicles, such as the Leopard 2, for example. On top of that, the lauded British ‘pride’ simply cannot fire high-explosive rounds, which are simply necessary to effectively counter infantry, and can only boast an ancient thermal imager.
“Although the Challenger 2’s turret is well protected, the hull is reinforced by simple steel armour without composites. Dynamic protection is also lacking.”
Western tanks and armoured vehicles “will not make weather” on the Ukrainian front, as they will be burned from the air by Russian military forces, experts conclude. Moreover, speaking of manoeuvrability, the Challenger 2 is quite inferior to Russian armoured vehicles. The British, for instance, is almost 15 tons heavier than our T-90M, which explains its obvious clumsiness. In addition, the speed of the T-90 in the so-called “rough terrain” is 50 km/h against the relatively modest 40 km/h Challenger 2.
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