Rheinmetall unveils UK’s upgraded Challenger 3 battle tank

PARIS — Rheinmetall unveiled the U.Ok.’s new Challenger 3 essential battle tank to the general public at a British Military occasion this week, with upgraded armor and a 120mm smoothbore cannon for what the corporate calls probably the most superior tank in NATO.

The U.Ok. is getting its improved tank as allies together with France and Germany are nonetheless contemplating whether or not and the way to adapt their heavy armor to evolving battlefield threats together with drones, which have been ubiquitous tank killers within the struggle in Ukraine. The Challenger 3 with the Ajax combating automobiles and Boxer infantry automobiles is about to kind the spine of the Military’s Future Soldier idea, which seeks to modernize the British forces for past 2030.

“The Challenger 3 will convey unmatched lethality to future battlefields,” the U.Ok. Ministry of Defence mentioned in a video posted on X, previously Twitter. “Alongside Ajax and Boxer, Challenger 3 will kind the British Military’s future fleet of armored automobiles.”

Rheinmetall is upgrading the tank in a three way partnership with BAE Methods, after shopping for 55% of the BAE enterprise that provides fight automobiles to the British Military in 2019. The Rheinmetall BAE Methods Land (RBSL) three way partnership signed a £800 million contract (US$1 billion) with the U.Ok. Ministry of Defence in Might 2021 to improve 148 Challenger 2 tanks.

Rheinmetall mentioned two Challenger 3 prototypes have already rolled out of the RBSL web site in Telford, England, with one other six to be delivered in coming months. Testing is underway to validate the efficiency of the prototypes and make changes, earlier than the remaining 140 tanks are constructed and delivered to the British Military.

The tank was on present on the British Military’s Defence Car Dynamics occasion at UTAC Millbrook, a land-vehicle proving floor that features off-road tracks for testing of navy automobiles.

The Rheinmetall-BAE three way partnership in April final yr carried out firing exams of the smoothbore gun, which replaces a rifled cannon that had left Britain the one consumer of rifled tank ammunition amongst NATO members. Rheinmetall’s 120mm smoothbore weapons are used on tanks together with the Leopard 2 and the U.S. Abrams.

RBSL and the U.Ok.’s Defence Science and Know-how Laboratory have developed a modular armor system for the Challenger 3 which the corporate mentioned is “a step change in survivability” for the tank, with trials profitable to date and extra deliberate in 2025.

“The RBSL group is making nice strides, with Challenger 3 finishing profitable non-destructive testing, and additional functionality trials are to come back,” the three way partnership’s Managing Director Will Gibby mentioned in a press release. He mentioned the brand new battle tank is “probably the most superior and succesful” in NATO.

The upgraded 66-tonne tank, with a crew of 4, options 24-hour all-weather sights, engine enhancements, a hydro-gas suspension, higher communications and elevated electrical energy that can enable for including extra power-hungry tools sooner or later.

The Challenger 3 will additional be geared up with the Trophy lively safety system from Rafael Superior Protection Methods, designed to guard in opposition to rockets and missiles, after the U.Ok. examined the system in late 2022.

France and Germany are engaged on a future battle-tank system dubbed the Primary Floor Fight System, although that’s not anticipated to be prepared earlier than the 2040s, and military-vehicle makers Rheinmetall and KNDS confirmed off competing tank ideas on the Eurosatory protection present in June right here that would plug the hole.

Gibby mentioned capabilities used for the Challenger 3 program, together with personnel, instruments and services, are the constructing blocks wanted for “new prospects options,” and “we stay up for RBSL serving to form the way forward for navy automobile design and manufacturing with worldwide allies.”

Rheinmetall and Finland’s Patria confirmed off a prototype mortar variant of the Boxer on the British Military occasion. The armored service mounted with Patria’s NEMO 120mm turreted mortar system has a most fireplace price of 10 rounds per minute and a variety of as much as 10 kilometers, whereas in a position to fireplace on the transfer, the businesses mentioned in a press release on Sept. 19.

The Boxer mortar variant can present each direct and oblique fireplace for better versatility in fight eventualities, whereas the turret means operators keep protected, in line with Rheinmetall. Patria known as the variant “a major leap” ahead when it comes to battlefield capabilities.

U.Ok. agency Babcock, in a partnership with ST Engineering, additionally offered a 120mm mortar system, consisting of a barrel on a floor plate deployed utilizing a hinged system in the back of a automobile. The system unveiled on the Military occasion in Millbrook was developed to “tackle the pressing requirement” to spice up the weaponry of the U.Ok.’s armed forces, and could be constructed on the firm’s web site in Devonport, England, Babcock mentioned.

The Netherlands in June picked BAE’s 120mm mortar system to equip its CV90 armored automobiles. The double-barreled turreted mortar has a most vary of 13 kilometers, and may fireplace as many as 16 rounds a minute, with a sustained price of 6 shells a minute, in line with the spec sheet.