The British Army has been catching some heat recently for under funding their tank program over the last 30 years. The Challeneger 3 is an attempt to reverse this trend. Do you think Britian needs more tanks are is their role in the NATO integrated alliance to provide other capabilities? To discuss with me, join the T&P discord Server discord.gg/M56sE5xjFa Special thank you and credit to Kafuko for this footage, be sure to check his video out here! ruclips.net/video/uarTjh41Cxw/видео.html
I think we need 250 heavy tanks in the UK formed into a 'heavy brigade', with a 'light brigade' plus rapid response brigade. But the government has shrunk our army so small that the UK armed forces are equal to Portugal or Belgium. Only our SF are top draw but they to are suffering man power issues. A new Challenger without a remote-controlled heavy machine gun to protect from Drones will be just a waste of money.
It's not the British Army's fault (they want as much as they can squeeze out of the government), it's the fault of economically right wing governments for over 4 decades. If you look at how the number of personnel, tanks, planes, ships and other vehicles have been cut since 1980, it's really quite worrying. The British are still slightly hampered by the "old school tie network", where idiots get employed in high powered jobs, simply because of which school they went to. This is far less bad than it used to be, but is still part of the reason for the ineptitude mentioned in the report.
people joke about the water heater, but honestly if you were doing an exercise, turned out (hatches open) in the miserable weather and pouring rain, imagine just how nice a warm drink would be on demand. apparently some challenger 2 crews wrap potato’s in aluminium foil and put them between the armor and the radiators, so when they do take a break, they get a nice engine baked potato, and a hot drink. honestly, its genius and the simple things like that really help the mental state of the crew, and help to keep them calm in battle.
Exhaust cooking in this way was very common in all British armoured vehicles. I used to do it in my CVR(T). Nevertheless the main British armour triangle was: 1. BV 2. Schnellimbiss 3. Wolfgang If you know, you know…
@@bob_the_bomb4508lol 😅 not heard the word “Schnelli” for years. Brings back good times, ordering pommes mit mayo n ketchup with a gyros was a life saver after a night of drinking lots of beers,fighting & hooking up with the local Frau lines which infuriated the local German men. What was ur favourite order at the schnelli?
The Boiling Vessel was introduced because during WW2, British tankers were often caught in German mortar "stonks" while having a brew outside of their vehicle.
@@norb0254 When I was in (British Army) I once worked with an Irish Army liaison officer called Captain Condon (yeah with an n). Dunno if promotion was much of an improvement for him! In my unit we had two Lance Jacks with the surname Mee. They were identical twins too. We had to keep them apart so we knew who was who - I remember the RSM shouting "Mee, get here now", to much amusement!
@@norb0254 I was just thinking about him, when I saw the previous coment 🤣 I was attached to my regiments LAD in the 90s when I originally came accross his name. Spent most of my career with the R.E.M.E in verious LADs, even though I was in a different Corp.
The whole tea thing must sound to a lot of people like a big joke but never underestimate the importance of troop morale. Something so simple as the ability to make tea has such a big improvement on morale
Morale be bug$%ed if your in the warmth & dryness of armour drinking & eating warm stuff, your not outside getting, wet cold fraged shot bombed or irradiated!! Movement & noise are much reduced too!
I don't think the main purpose of the water boilers are to cook tea, but rather so you can cook your rations which need to be submerged in boiling water to cook.
I have a kind of claim to fame. I was in the REME back in 1987 when I was sent at short notice to Bordon in Hampshire. The only thing I was told was that I was going 'on training', but not what. When I got there I was in the first ever batch of Class A Mechanics (tank mechanics) in the British Army trained on what was then the brand new Challenger Tank (known now as the Mark 1). It was an eye opener for us and so far advanced versus the Chieftain MBT. It was over engineered in places (like the Air Charged Transmission Oil Cooler) and used synthetic oil in the transmission that if you got on your unprotected hands would rot the skin away (called X-some number or other). It was twin turbo which ran at such a high pitch that we were all required to wear two sets of ear defenders when working on the pack outside of the tank. Took them 6-months to tell us that, but which time my hearing was already fooked :D Now have tinnitus but I wear it as a badge of honour :D It also had laser rangefinder which came with a rumour that if you pointed at someone's charlie-ollocks it could sterilise them. Almost certainly complete rubbish, but didn't stop us pointing it at the meat and two veg of those we scored higher than a 5 on the d**khead scale as they walked past.
I think you've stretched your claim to fame if it was a MK1 with RR CV12T engine. I was the VMA maintaining the Challenger (known as P1 as it was the original Prototype no.1) at SEE Arborfield within the security compound for the ECE's to train on from Sept 1983 - Sept 1986. I still have the SEME Bordon Challenger technical handout book in my loft and certainly it would have been a SEME course in either late 83 or early 84. I then spent my last 2yrs at 7 Armoured Fallingbostel before leaving end of 1988.
@@steviep7706 We also visited SEE at the time to given instruction on the gbox controller I think it was, which were like a bank of pcbs. Only vague recollection of that bit as we didn't repair those but obviously needed to know how to replace the parts. I think we also learned about the TOGs coolant system as were required to know how to safely discharge and remove the pressurised coolant tank that formed part of it. Freaking awesome you still have a technical handout. I'd love to see one of those and have a peruse through it. I served at 11 Armd Wksp and we were supporting 2 RTR at the time who were one of the first regiments to get the Challenger. Did the same a year or so later with the Warriors too.
Brit here. These are, in my opinion, the main issues we have with defence: - An incredibly wasteful procurement process. Far too much spend with far too little to show for it. AHEM, AJAX. - A lack of mass. In the number of platforms, stockpiles, our active and reserve forces, we don't have enough. 148 Challenger 3's is a joke. - A lack of continuity. Even with the war in Ukraine very clearly demonstrating to us that industrial scale warfare is still very much in fashion, we have still been slow to recapitalise our DIB and provide the long term guarantees (ie, contracts) required to get the cogs of industry turning once again - Lazy recruitment. Delegating recruitment to Capita (a private company) is a dereliction of duty - Widespread complacency. Peace is taken for granted and the need for readiness is dismissed. Hell, when the government announced that it would be testing a nationwide alert system, there was widespread panic about "warmongering". People need to understand and accept that we live in a more dangerous world, and that we need to be prepared.
You sum it up perfectly. There's a frightening disconnect between those in Whitehall and the real world. What will it take to bring reality to these stuffed shirts? Russian tanks smashing through the Baltic states? But of course by then it will be game over 😮
@@myowndata Probably slowly. I do wonder if the continued rise of French and Polish influence in the EU military sphere will force Germany to up their game to ensure they don't lose their influence... or if they will step aside and settle into a tertiary position
The boiling vessel ( BV) in the tank is crucial , not only for Tea , but boiling the rations and you can cook rice, noodles , pasta , eggs. The loader is the mother of the tank but loading is secondary to the primary task of making a brew !
A tank is a truly horrible place to spend an extended amount of time in, especially the ones with auto loaders. The BV increases morale enough to actually have a noticeable effect on combat effectiveness.
In regards to the tea: * The titanium teapot is built into the main cannon's firing chamber, harvesting the heat from each shell. The placement of the teapot has been better optimized for the turret crew to access over the Challenger 2. It takes 2 shots to boil the water. * Teabags are stored with the ammunition for the most efficient combat brew. Combat is, ofc, the time when tea is most needed to soothe the nerves during intense combat. * The milk is stored in a separate milk resovoir, and kept cool through a heat exchanger system, that transfers the heat to the high durability kevlar combat teacup holders. This keeps the tea at the optimal temperature. * Honey is dispensed seperately, and is chosen for its emergency anti-bacterial properties. It has a manual pump for personal taste. * Kevlar Combat Teacups (or "KCT's", as they are known in His Majesty's Royal Tank Brigade) have saved many tank crew lives, preventing shrapnel injuries since they were introduced in the Challenger 2. KCT's are made from a kevlar composite that is thermally insulating everywhere but the base, where it interacts with the heat exchanger. There are tea and milk ports on the KCT. Despite the KCT's having a lid to seal them (for obvious reasons), they do also come with a small handle. There is also a hinge system for the lid for biscuit dunking. Proper use of KCT's, including the all important "pinky maneuver" is drilled into all british military personnel during basic training. * Special military MRE biscuits (otherwise known to those philistine yanks as "cookies") are stored in a special dispenser at each operating station. These are each formulated to be high in protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals, and a combination of fast, medium, and slow release energy. Each biscuit is 10% of a soldier's RDA's, and 10 biscuits are provided per crew member per day. They come in classic Rich Tea, Hobnob, Malted Milk, and Digestive varieties. After much debate in militry tribunals and then parliament, these have all been upgraded to chocolate varieties for morale.
Q: Why does the UK only have 221 MBTs while Poland is acquiring over 1300 tanks? A: The UK is a collection of islands (fyi, tanks aren’t really that good at swimming 😉) while Poland is on a flat wide plain with no significant geographical defensible features that has been the playground for ambitious European leaders with land armies for half a millennium & has a population that doesn’t want a repeat of that history ….
Because NATO. Why would GB spend money on defense when the US will just print more money and cover that? Leaves GB more money to fund its overburdened public entitlements.
@@T_bone, Poland is in NATO too. And each NATO member contributes different capabilities. The UK is one of the few nations other than the USA that has a military with expeditionary capability (that means they can project military power well beyond their borders with their own sealift & airlift capability). Poland is a primarily land based military whose sole security threat is 🇷🇺 who would threaten them and the Baltic nations with a land army reinforced with tanks & IFVs. If you are Poland, you need to be able to stop armored & mechanized infantry, so tanks (& attack helicopters) are what you need, not a Navy. If you are an island nation, you need a navy & air force to defend yourself. An army allows you to project power over the horizon (once the Air Force &/or Navy transports you there). Lastly, say what you will about the UK, they are one of the only non-US NATO countries with nuclear submarines (that can reach anywhere in the world without requiring refueling) & the UK & France are the only non-US NATO countries with nuclear deterrence. The UK may not be the US (btw, no one matches us) but they are one of the biggest military players on the globe
Ayyyy, Telford Resident here, all I’ll say is this is the first time telfords ever produced something significant since the Industrial Revolution lmao, But beyond that a slight side note is don’t try so hard to pronounce things in England, we have had centuries to find the laziest way to say our towns, and Telford is no exception, instead of saying Tel-Ford just say Telfud, that’s the closest you’ll get to the British way of saying it without a painfully boring lesson in the very wierd nuances or British dialects and pronunciation. It’s like Worcestershire and how that’s pronounced Wuster-Sher (or shire if you’re of a slightly more fancy ilk)
@@Oo_Tigger_oOone that always gets people is my old local airfield, it was called halfpenny green but pronounced the old way, so instead of it being Half-penny it was said Hay-p-knee Or some folks also called it Halp-knee
A bit sad they let the old rifled canon barrel go. The new one will be more versatile but the old one held the world record for the longest distance kill. A Challenger 1 from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed an Iraqi tank at a range of 5,000 metres (3.1 mi). This was the longest recorded tank to tank kill in the history of armored warfare.
Always remember a short smooth bore is much cheaper than a longer rifled barrel, it also will last longer. Everything is a trade off. British doctrine learnt in ww2 has been long range maximum destructiveness. Oh smooth bore is older than rifled ,its a musket cheaper than a rifle simpler last longer just not as good
According to the MOD - one of the biggest upgrades has been the TTT of the BV has been reduced by 20 seconds (Time-to-Tea) - which means an extra 20 cups of Tea can be brewed by the crew in a typical 24 hour combat period - leading to an overal increase in crew effectiveness of 30 percent.
Omg for someone is watching at home in Telford i burst out laughing was not expecting the town i live in be mentioned in anyway and how you butchered the name was the best gift anyone could give me! Thank you! ❤️
Fascinating vid, thanks for making it. As a brit, I'd often wondered why we hadn't upgraded our challenger 2 even tough it's still all in all a pretty great tank. Now I know. Also, as a brit, your accent is delightfully all over the place. Please don't stop doing it!!!😆
Another reason Poland wants 1300 tanks when we have a couple hundred is also mostly logistics. We’re a little island about as far away as you can be from ‘the enemy’. Better to get planes over the enemy in hours than tanks in days/weeks. Poland is on their front door across ground. Tanks make much more sense for them.
Indeed all modern combat soldiers have said most of their wars were spent hanging around waiting for those brief, deadly moments of activity. Fortunately all of my carrer was spent "hanging around": on the bus, off the bus stuff....
The single Challenger destroyed within Ukraine was immobilised after losing a track to a mine. It was then hit by Lancet drones and a Kornet ATGM, leading to stored ammo explosion. All four crew reportedly survived unharmed after bailing when the track/running gear was lost.
@Samuel-hd3cp In what way? Only 14x Challengers were donated. Challenger 2 opened the doorway for other Western Tanks. Without Challenger, Leopards and Abrams would not have followed. Sure one has been lost however however 14 tanks were never going to rout thousands of Russian tanks. I'd say that the 3000+ lost Russian tanks have been far more disappointing than any of the Western tanks. At least the most important component of Western tanks tend to survive - the crew.
@@Samuel-hd3cp. Leopards and Abrams are also doing the artillery job. One of the biggest issues with all these tanks is the lack of air support. Tanks work best in concert with infantry and air support. The combined arms approach increases tactical effectiveness. As a challenger 2 commander I’m fully aware of the challies downfalls but I’m also fully aware of its strengths. When used correctly with the right assets available ch2, and leopard, Abrams are a force to be reckoned with. The biggest problem is, Ukraine does not have air superiority and therefore cannot use the combined arms approach effectively. Now, I would like to add. Having worked on ch1 and 2. It’s always been underpowered so an engine upgrade would not go a miss.
friendly reminder that the British once bought every ounce of tea on the market for an entire years harvest just to make sure they'd have enough on hand during wW2. They knew they could feed their soldiers hard tack and potatoes without complaining too loudly, they knew their citizens would put up with rationing, but they knew their empire would crumble without tea. Hell, the Opium Wars and Chinese century of humiliation were both over the British tea habit; the Brits broke the back of the worlds largest and oldest empire like Bane breaking Batman all for their love of hot leaf water.
@@arthas640 Also, back in WW2, during the north Africa campaign, multiple British tanker crews were killed while leaving the tank to brew tea. They started putting the kettle inside the tank after this.
I know it's the common joke, but for anyone actually wondering, it's because something like 70% of British MRE's are "boil in the bag", so somewhere to boil water is necessary for hot meals. (and in the case of some specific ones, a vaguely edible meal at all)
@@kiritotheabridgedgod4178 Like the muesli, which, for some stupid reason, is meant to be boiled Muesli is bad, boiled muesli made me legitametly throw up. Now, I'll admit I'm a pretty fussy eater, but that is the only thing that has ever made me retch
As a Brit I'm the first to "big up" our kit, and the lads who run em are second to none. However, the UK has 50p and a packet of quavers for a defence budget and we failed to meet our recruitment targets again for a force that's 70kish in size. The truth is that there will be a handful of these made and even less operational at any given time. Meanwhile Poland is ordering over a thousand off the shelf S. Korean MBTs. Where did we go wrong?
@@simonxxx6179 👋 hey mate, I think it's the same in most western countries. Even now our population and politicians continue on, in the blind hope nothing will ever happen 💩 Fingers crossed it doesn't, but we all know that weakness just encourages it.
1) for the lack of manpower I would say in a word « multiculturalism » in short but to develop it doesn’t create a cohesive nation, a lack of patriotisme If u will 2) For its military capabilities I would say that the UK relayed on the USA for everything but maybe that war in Ukraine and the lack of absolute support might have nudge the UK to increase its defence capabilities and they could try to free themselves from the puppet-like relationship
Not just tea, there is coffee consumed as well (important to Americans and other Europeans) the BV does a great job of heating MRE's as well. So, not just tea.
While not having carriers and SSNs, Poland actually has a navy with 1 SSK , 2 OHP frigates and a few corvettes, missile boats and minesweeper etc Infact their future frigate is based on the Type 31 1st of which will be built in UK and the rest at Poland
People forget the huge cost of maintaining a permanent at sea deterrent; £5 billion per year I was told. You could buy a hell of a lot of tanks for that.
People like to make jokes about the focus on Tea and such but focusing on such things is one of the biggest factors that contributed to high troop morale during wars. In WW1 the French army made notes on how seeing the British forces being supplied to which such simple things resulted in them having far greater discipline and morale when compared to the French forces In WW2, American forces would actually trade items with British forces and noted how much better they felt after being able to have something as basic as a cup of tea.
When served, heard a rumour US trialled microwave ovens. Which seemed emininently sensible. Supposedly just led to food poisoning. Which think came about as that is not how the US re-supply is organised i.e. to have tea, coffee, etc the UK tank is fully rationed at all times for four men for x number of days. US vehicles never are/were.
Oh, contraire. The Challenger name was only used for models 1 and 2. "Challeneger" is the model 3, and the "Challenenger" will be the model 4, with additional syllables used for follow-on models. The name of the model 9 is expected to 'challenge' everyone in the armor community.
148 C3 tanks is not enough for the British Army, but it would be hard to add more than another 56, as there are not enough C2 hulls left to be converted. Yes, Poland will have 1300 tanks, but the British have 4x Trident Submarines, 7x SSN, 2x 65k ton aircraft carriers, 8x C-17 large transport aircraft. Poland does not have these items.
@@stephengrange5300 An SSN can launch Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against enemy concentrations, including airfields. It can also use torpedos to sink enemy transport ships carrying tanks.
Well there's going to be over 300 318 I do believe. The recruitment is probably an issue in most western countries due to the younger generations not wanting to do a hard day's work and get their hands dirty.
@@philhasacamera recruitment is down because the wages and conditions are terrible, not some bullshit about the generation not wanting to work.. something people say about every generation
@@philhasacamera"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." - Socrates Every generation seems to think that the next generation is weak or entitled. The issue is with wages and the work environment.
The BV is THE best part of British armour. I used to crew the Warrior IFV and that had 2 boiling vessels (BV’s) we wouldn’t leave camp without at least one in the back.
On the Challenger 1 and 2 the explosive propellant was stored seperetely in armoured bins on the floor of the tank. This was the reason why so few Challengers were ever destroyed in battle compared to Abrams and Leopard 2. If the Challenger 3 has ammunition stowed in the turret then it is more vulnerable, that is why the change to the 120mm smoothbore was so long in coming.
@@knoll9812 How do you work that out Challengers were in combat in the 1st and second Gulf Wars just as long as Abrams. The US lost 32 Abrams though most were "friendly fire". Turks lost 9 Leopards to old Soviet era missiles in a few weeks fighting in Syria. Just as bad as T-72 for turrets blown off
This isn't entirely accurate a description of the UK position. CR MarkI/II had glycol surrounded fibreglass propellant bins. The intent being that any splinter penetration into the ammo bins would be doused by glycol. This was then deemed inadequate. Such that MarkIII CR1 had the armoured bins, of what seemed from decades old memory, to be about 1cm steel plate. Presumably these and/or their design philosophy carried over into CR2. Thus it was long known that the Chieftain/Challenger series were vulnerable to hull penetrations into the propellant bins - per se with any tank. The UK approach was obviously sub-standard to blow out panels on Abrams. At the known expense of a greater bomb load: 55 US v 64 UK (CR1). Indeed it was always possible to load more on the UK tanks in a free form let's all die manner given the three piece nature of the ammunition versus the huge single round smoothbore behemoth. In a war, especially as to the UK the last major use of armour was as artillery shelling KR, this is/was an important criteria. Granby did not change this outlook: bomb load matters. The three piece ammunition may not have been as accurate but, if time allowed, more rounds on target acheived the same end. If time allowed... And granted when expecting to meet 3rd Shock Army in the Cold War the time might not have been there.
@@ostwelt The Armoured ammunition bins were fitted to Challenger 1 Mk2 before the Gulf War. Challenger1 Mk3 had armoured bins from the factory has had Challenger 2. British tanks are the best armoured in the world, Abrams has British armour. Fitting armoured ammo bins was a precaution and used since WW2 on British tanks. The armoured bins on the floor of the tank is far safer than stowing ammunition in the turret bustle were armour is thin. The Abrams Armoured box helps save crew but the tanks usually don't survive the fire. The Leapard is the worst, a hit on the turrer usually blows it off killing the crew. As to gun accuracy Challenger took out an Iraqi tank at 5 kilometers. Thats twice the distance ever achieved by Abrams or Leopard 2 and Russian guns are useless over 1,5 km
@@billballbuster7186 Yeah, but what is next to the driver either side behind a very thin glacis plate? Bit like the Abrams bustle is a CR driver's cab... My point wasn't the virtues of the bins or even location but that once penetrated by main armament all bets are off in any tank. Armoured bins are only against spall and shrapnel nothing more. Sure, location might help time to detonation and thus crew escape. But I don't measure those merits just the tank. And if penetrated, serially definitely, then it is probably a gonna. Best armoured, whatever. On paper CR1 insufficiently and thus, more so M1 and Leo2. Now, again same-same against drones. Believe the Kool-Aid as I once did too but look at the stats.
One major thing is that the UK doesn't need tanks at the same rate as Poland or other continent nations. We are more dependent on our navy, but that's still underfunded. Just not quite as bad as it can be seen here... the UK could barely fit 1500 tanks in the country lol
I drove a 113 that I screwed the governor out on and screwed the accel pedal stop all the way down. (Give a grunt enough time) In Hohenfels, I jumped D-21 off the ground. My 1Sgt said I should get aviator wings because he'd never seen that before. I blew the transmission about six months later during Reforger. We had 'er running again in two hours. Meanwhile, the squad got a nice nap.
Real talk. I'm an Englishman. I drink (and so do most of everybody I know) about 6 or 7 cups of tea a day. We need it to function here. Even prisoners are offered a cup of tea as a right. If we couldn't brew tea in battle, we wouldn't function properly. No joke.
I don't know if "real talk", you know the Internet and all that. that said, I don't drink tea or coffee, I although I can understand the concept, of a comfort's of home. I also can understand how this helps with POWs, especially the Russian conscripts, now their treated liked... human-beings
They fixed it XD pro strat is make a typo intentionally so people will correct it => 📈📈algorithm. *Be incredibly subtle, even to the point of formlessness* . This is gonna be a tradition now...
With limited money available, the UK has to choose carefully from the various things that it needs more of. As an island nation, comissioning more escort vessels and getting more combat aircraft is a much better (though also much bigger) investment. And right now there is a crying need for escort vessels, not to mention more development on the two newer aircraft carriers. No point in having those if they can't be deployed properly.
@@Steelninja77 Used to be, but unfortunately, not anymore. WW1 and 2 really, really did numbers on the UK that- frankly the fact that the UK is even halfway back to fighting capacity is remarkable.
The boiling vessel is a very important piece of equipment. In the saladin armoured vehicles in the lybian desert in the 1960s our boiling vessel was a life saver.
did you watch the video properly though, he explains in rather great detail why that is. Mostly due to a few precise reasons. 1. being we are an island nation and our army isnt as important. 2. As a Nato nation it is decided that the british army isnt of huge importance to nato above our Navy aswell as our high technological advancements that advance nato as a whole such as Nuclear, space and cyber technologies which is where the bulk of the defense spending goes. As a memeber of nato we should prioritize our position within NATO over what the public think we should be doing as at the end of the Day NATO is the one leading the defense of europe and knows what europe needs for its defense as a whole.
@@ashleygoggs5679 It's also because we are upgrading our Challenger 2s, which we have less than 300 of in working condition. We don't have spare parts because all the factories were closed down like 30 years ago and we have been cannibalizing challies for parts. Even though what you say is true, we have no choice but to have so few challenger 3s anyway.
@@spamstabberwhatever the true number of tanks that are functional, it should be maxed. It costs a lot to just start a program like this. They should max all the potential they possibly can. They could even upgrade the Ukrainian ones too.
Chobham is what got me. I live in Hampshire….. Hampshire, Illinois, USA and I think we’re all pronouncing it incorrectly lol HAMP-SURE 🤷🏻♂️ I always thought you kinda pronounced the shire part like how it’s spelled, but knowing me I’m probably wrong. Teach me your ways so I can inform the people of this town! 😂Fun fact: Hampshire, Illinois was used to house 260 German POWs from the Afrika Corps. They were used to harvest corn and peas and then can them. A lot never went back to Europe. They weren’t hardcore SS guys or anything, just enlisted men. They’d go to church here on Sundays( most to the Lutheran church and some to the Catholic Church) with the locals. All but just a few were able to assimilate to American life and culture.
@@Davey-BoydAhhh, so I’ve been the weirdo pronouncing it wrong this whole time lmfao. Everyone says SURE and I kinda annunciate the SHIRE like a fkn hobbit. Appreciate the info.
@@OleDonKedic About the POW's, same happened here. My old college principal was German, he was a ME 109 pilot who got shot down in the Battle of Britain and captured. He never left! Many Germans stayed if their home ended up in the Soviet zone. A lot of Poles ended up here too for the same reason - they didn't get on with the Germans that stayed lol!
A little-known post-WWII report on tank losses in the British Army found that about 37% of ALL tank losses occurred while the tank crews were not actually present inside the tank! While this kept human losses low it was deemed unacceptably high in vehicle losses. The main reason? The crews were outside having a brew-up! With the advent of the revolutionary new Centurion tank, the boiling vessel was installed in each tank. A quick read of the comments below by people better informed than I will show the many and varied reasons for this innovation. And so it has remained a permanent fixture in all British armoured vehicles ever since. Crew morale is an integral part, and a most important one, of successful tank crews and their fighting capability.
I would say having worked on Challenger and other armour with the older torsion bar suspension that hydrogas is no more mechanically complicated or maintenance intensive. Mechanically it's just a high pressure tank bolted to the hull with a wheel station on the bottom filled with oil just like a standard shock absorber and pressurised nitrogen gas to act as the spring. Maintenance is just daily testing with a crow bar for resistance exactly like a torsion bar and scheduled checks with a pumping trolly and nitrogen bottle to replace any escaped gas. When the internal seals begin to fail replacement is fairly easy but you do need a crane and lifting beam still better than trying to fish razor sharp grease covered shards of snapped torsion bar out of a very small hole. I'd say both systems fail at about the same rate for much the same reasons components ageing or overly aggressive incompetent driving. An added bonus of the hydrogas system being all externally mounted upgraded or even fully redesigned units could be easily fitted without changing the hull as long as they fit in the space and use the same mounting points. Not true of torsion bars which are limited to a narrow tube through the bottom of the hull and the machined anchor point on the other end.
I think that was some of the reason for the Centurion's longevity was the Bogie suspension assemblies were able to be retrofitted with more refined sub assemblies later on with lessons learnt in the manufacturing.
As someone who changes broken parts daily in less challenging environments, I have to bow to your obvious knowledge of working on Tank suspension systems.
@@i.rjardine312 the biggest advantage of the system is it's unparalleled smoothness on rough terrain making gunnery more accurate by giving the turret stabilization systems less work to do. You can with practice and a few handholds move about on the tank decks while driving cross country ( don't ask) . It's actually a heavy duty version of a system developed and used extensively by Citroen post WWII their cars gave such a smooth ride they were used extensively as camera cars during horse racing events back when the cameras used film and digital stabilization was a pipe dream. The biggest problems with the Citroen system was they had a centralised pressure tank with pipework connected to rams at each wheel all those connections under constantly changing pressure suffered from metal fatigue leading to difficult and costly repairs. The Challenger has each wheel attached directly to it's own tank by a ram with no pipes or joints.
General Ineptitude is in charge of the British Army. It should not be too long before all war equipment will be remote operated, nobody will have to be in the line of fire.
Future tanks need their own launchable search and destroy drones, i.e. Switchblade 600, and a retrievable scouting drone, maybe sent up by wire, and a atgm self defense system.
Every tank should have an autoloading surveillance drone launcher. A $5,000 Ai steered drone with thermal cameras and laser designator would be a massive upgrade to those one viewpoint tank mounted sights.
It may be better for the tank to be specialized to what tasks a tank does best and to have a separate drone team, (hidden from view) and using a data link so the tank receives the information it needs.
The Hydragas suspension system was developed by the British Motor Corporation (by the original designer of the Mini, sir Alec Issigonis) as an improved system for several of their range of cars, including the original Mini, which was first designed with rubber components instead of springs for the compact small car. The Hydragas system gave a vastly improved ride in a very compact package, again obviating the need for bulky springs and shock absorbers, as the system acted as both.
@@ashardalondragnipurake just because you don’t see the benefit of it does not take from the fact that the challenger 3 turret can still be fitted on to other nato tanks
@@YorkshireMemes i do see the benefit frankentanks we would be in a horrible situation to need frankentanks better to not build for the frankentank fallback situation and specialize to avoid the frankentank necessity
The BV system is definitely at the top of the "priorities" list. Having served alongside the British I quickly learned that nothing gets done before they have their "cuppa"!
I worked on the development of the Chobham Armour back in the mid 80s in Bristol. Some 'out of this world' experiences, but of course i cannot say to threat of death 🤫
Regarding NGVA - I worked on the equivalent IDF Beacon system - for 20 years... It's a great idea, but getting it from "hey, I can see myself on this moving map" through "I can send this target report to my commanding officer and he can see it on his map" to "we got this target package from the air force, lets download it to the company's tanks" took 20 years, during which we kept being promised "the next version will fix all the bugs, you just have to now replace all the wiring and computers, again", again and again.
Ironic, because I worked on certain similar "battlefield network" systems for the US and damn if your experience wasn't almost the same as mine. Granted, the systems showed marked improvement over the generations, but FAR from perfect. Some missions were spent more on fixing, calibrating, configuring said systems than the actual missions themselves and often times the system was bypassed altogether for more simpler radio communications.
@@ostwelt I think it was less about the processors themselves and more about everything else - sensors, connectivity (we went from voice multiplexed VHF, through dedicated RF circuits to 802.11), protocol updates and just the general fix the bugs and add software features.
Personally I would make the sight spin constantly at a rate giving a 360 view, incorporate AI movement sensors, anything that moves in the sights 360 degree vision, would be picked up tracked and identified. Make this independent to the commander and gunners sights, you got a system that would automatically find and track targets so all the crew has to do is prioritize the targets.
Nice in theory; in practice rearward vision is a distraction as all your forces are following on suuch would just be confusing Blue-on-Blues. Would delgate this to solely AI especially in anti-drone capacity where a human is going to be too slow anyway. Over your arcs you need precision not sweeping movements so 270 becomes AI delegated or the loader can watch until things get spicy.... Really give it all to AI and take the crew out. Takes too much space etc....
The funniest TEA story from my regiment the Rhodesia African Rifles, one of our companies was carrying out an external attack on a terrorist camp deep inside Mozambique. The company commander set up his company tac HQ on a small hill over looking the camp but did not realize this was the crash RV for the camp. It then became a desperate fight to hold the hill. The company commander always had his batman make him tea at 6 in the morning and thus in the middle of the action his batman while taking pot shots at the enemy, diligently made his company commanders tea. Crawling over to his company commander he duly produced his tin cup of tea. Those African Masodja had a wicked sense of humour.
During the Falklands conflict there's a story of an engineer from 9 Sqn RE sitting behind a rock during a period of incoming, making a brew. When asked what he was doing he pointed to each side of his rock saying "Rounds are landing there, rounds are landing there" indicated his own position and said "Rounds aren't landing here" therefore this was the obvious place to make a brew. Shrugged and carried on.
Had to give this an upvote just for the hilarious attempt at a British accent! 😆 Seriously though, great job on a well-researched video. I had heard the Chally 3 (or 2.5?) was coming but you wouldn't know it from the news in the UK. As you pointed out, we are an island, so if enemies actually reach our shores then we're kinda screwed - hence why we are spending more on the Navy and Air Force. But this upgrade will mean we can field heavy armour in conjunction with our NATO allies, as and when needed. Just wish we had more troops though. Even without heavy armour, well-equipped infantry can still do an awful lot.
Shame they got rid of the riffled barrel for a much weaker on, the rifled barrels had a huge increase in accuracy, only reason to change is ease of ammunition resupply, doesn’t seem to be worth the trade. Also now the ammo is a single piece again it brings back the possibility of having the ammo ignite 8f hit which the old one wouldn’t.
This tank is more a "Challenger 2 .5" than a Challenger 3. From every source I've studied, I've found the engine is basically the same as a Challenger 2. The listed "top speed" is the maximum speed right before engine and transmission damage occurs and the weight is problematic. I respect the Brits for building it in England as they will then have trained people when they decide to truly build a next-gen tank. The "Challenger 3" is a tank built and designed for 2024 not for the future.
could you make a video about the Roem? its the new israeli SPG that replaces the m109a5 Doher, which the IDF calls "the first automatic artillery" I know it doesnt really make sense as there are other autoloaded SPG's but it would be cool to hear more about it, it just had its first production vehicle shoot some shells yesterday
The phycological element of element of food, but especially luxuries such as hot drinks (remember the British forces are designed for cold European theatres) is staggeringly high. Its so high, its a tangible war advantage.
When I served in the Soviet army in a cabover truck, I heated canned meat directly on its V-8 engine while continuing to drive the car. You don’t need a 75-ton tank for this🙂
The BV got added because British tank crews back in WW2 would often dismount (sometimes on the frontlines according to some stories) to brew tea but kept getting shot at, so later when they developed the Centurion tanks they added the BV so that crews could safely do their business inside their vehicles
@@Lo-tf6qt Whatever is save about when your crew sits in a not moving tank at the frontline, brewing tea. You do get that a tank is not some safe zone like in a video game. If you got the problem that the enemy is shooting at you outside, the same enemy will just attack the tank. Maybe in WW2 anti tank weapons were spare at least at western front, where UK, USA, France only fought meager, ill equipped rests, since over 80% of the german casualties were in the east against the soviets. But today were pretty much everything can destroy/disable a tank? And then you want to make tea in firing range? Hell, even unguided artillery would shred you for just standing there.
@@miriamweller812 It's still far more safe for your tank crew top remain in the tank and only be a viable target for anti tank weapons than for them to be outside the tank and vulnerable to literally everything. It also allows for a more rapid response to changing situations if the crew has to dismount less for basic comforts. And while man portable ATGMs and Anti Tank weapons are far more numerous then before, they are still less numerous than conventional weaponry. In Ukraine plenty of tanks are dug in to defensive positions under cover of other defensive positions to defend them from drone attack, in those situations you want to be inside the tank as much as possible, otherwise an assault by Russian forces or an artillery strike could end up wiping out the crew and leaving an entirely intact tank for the enemy. Unguided artillery is really not going to wipe out a tank unless it hits basically directly on the vehicle, where as if the crew is outside the vehicle you could lose them all instantly. People have this weird perception where they seem to think every other person in the Russian army or in Nato forces has an anti tank weapon, but realistically they are weapons deployed in their own specific tank hunting teams or to cover whole sections and are not ideal weapons for use in the middle of assault actions where the operator will have to be stationary and an easy target for everything else. Man portable AT weapons are more effectively used from static positions and ambushes on already moving vehicles and those in the open. Drones and guided artillery are best used for stationary, dug in vehicles and again those will be even more deadly against a crew outside the vehicle.
You can also fry sausages and bacon in the BV's, its not normally done because its a nightmare to clean the grease and oil out but its one of the functions of the BV. To boil water, cook rations packs and fry fresh scoff
You forgot to mention the Ch2's long range strike record... and the Ch3 is rumoured to have an even longer effective firing range. The result being you hit the target before they can even see you. Even if they did they can't even return fire until they're 2km closer and that's a real game changer in survivability.
@@zamstig66 it is an island nation and should have a robust Navy. It two carriers are experiencing issues that barely work and they don't have enough sailors to man support ships which limits their ability to operate off of their own coast. The UK has too long depended on a nuclear arsenal to project force. If the UK is having issues with their Navy, what do their land forces look like?
The Challenger 3 showcases impressive innovation, but its small fleet size raises questions about Britain's defense priorities in a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape.
The British Army has been catching some heat recently for under funding their tank program over the last 30 years. The Challeneger 3 is an attempt to reverse this trend. Do you think Britian needs more tanks are is their role in the NATO integrated alliance to provide other capabilities? To discuss with me, join the T&P discord Server discord.gg/M56sE5xjFa Special thank you and credit to Kafuko for this footage, be sure to check his video out here!
ruclips.net/video/uarTjh41Cxw/видео.html
I came here to write the same , it is just crappy fishing for engagement 😂@@irishvicar1963
Are you sure you spelled that name properly, I want to be sure before I tell my black friends about this video
❤❤
I think we need 250 heavy tanks in the UK formed into a 'heavy brigade', with a 'light brigade' plus rapid response brigade. But the government has shrunk our army so small that the UK armed forces are equal to Portugal or Belgium. Only our SF are top draw but they to are suffering man power issues.
A new Challenger without a remote-controlled heavy machine gun to protect from Drones will be just a waste of money.
It's not the British Army's fault (they want as much as they can squeeze out of the government), it's the fault of economically right wing governments for over 4 decades.
If you look at how the number of personnel, tanks, planes, ships and other vehicles have been cut since 1980, it's really quite worrying.
The British are still slightly hampered by the "old school tie network", where idiots get employed in high powered jobs, simply because of which school they went to. This is far less bad than it used to be, but is still part of the reason for the ineptitude mentioned in the report.
people joke about the water heater, but honestly if you were doing an exercise, turned out (hatches open) in the miserable weather and pouring rain, imagine just how nice a warm drink would be on demand. apparently some challenger 2 crews wrap potato’s in aluminium foil and put them between the armor and the radiators, so when they do take a break, they get a nice engine baked potato, and a hot drink. honestly, its genius and the simple things like that really help the mental state of the crew, and help to keep them calm in battle.
Exhaust cooking in this way was very common in all British armoured vehicles. I used to do it in my CVR(T).
Nevertheless the main British armour triangle was:
1. BV
2. Schnellimbiss
3. Wolfgang
If you know, you know…
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Yep.
@@bob_the_bomb4508lol 😅 not heard the word “Schnelli” for years. Brings back good times, ordering pommes mit mayo n ketchup with a gyros was a life saver after a night of drinking lots of beers,fighting & hooking up with the local Frau lines which infuriated the local German men. What was ur favourite order at the schnelli?
@@marcs990 as an old Berlin hand, definitely Currywurst… :)
I even cook them myself sometimes
The Boiling Vessel was introduced because during WW2, British tankers were often caught in German mortar "stonks" while having a brew outside of their vehicle.
General ineptitude, and major incompetence are the two most dangerous officers
When i was in the R.E.M.E. The officer who signed posting orders was a Major Bodger ..i bet he was desperate for his promotion
@@norb0254 When I was in (British Army) I once worked with an Irish Army liaison officer called Captain Condon (yeah with an n). Dunno if promotion was much of an improvement for him! In my unit we had two Lance Jacks with the surname Mee. They were identical twins too. We had to keep them apart so we knew who was who - I remember the RSM shouting "Mee, get here now", to much amusement!
Which is why the UK has started outsourcing some of their defence needs to germany i guess.
@@norb0254 I was just thinking about him, when I saw the previous coment 🤣 I was attached to my regiments LAD in the 90s when I originally came accross his name. Spent most of my career with the R.E.M.E in verious LADs, even though I was in a different Corp.
@@anvil5356 It made me laugh when i first saw his name
The whole tea thing must sound to a lot of people like a big joke but never underestimate the importance of troop morale. Something so simple as the ability to make tea has such a big improvement on morale
Main reason is to also stop the crew leaving the tank to make tea, you want to keep them inside!
Morale be bug$%ed if your in the warmth & dryness of armour drinking & eating warm stuff, your not outside getting, wet cold fraged shot bombed or irradiated!! Movement & noise are much reduced too!
I don't think the main purpose of the water boilers are to cook tea, but rather so you can cook your rations which need to be submerged in boiling water to cook.
We conquered a quarter of the planet fueled on tea. It's our superpower. 😂
@@Turbro39what did sharpe and the chosen men do every other chapter? Make a brew 😂
I have a kind of claim to fame. I was in the REME back in 1987 when I was sent at short notice to Bordon in Hampshire. The only thing I was told was that I was going 'on training', but not what. When I got there I was in the first ever batch of Class A Mechanics (tank mechanics) in the British Army trained on what was then the brand new Challenger Tank (known now as the Mark 1). It was an eye opener for us and so far advanced versus the Chieftain MBT. It was over engineered in places (like the Air Charged Transmission Oil Cooler) and used synthetic oil in the transmission that if you got on your unprotected hands would rot the skin away (called X-some number or other). It was twin turbo which ran at such a high pitch that we were all required to wear two sets of ear defenders when working on the pack outside of the tank. Took them 6-months to tell us that, but which time my hearing was already fooked :D Now have tinnitus but I wear it as a badge of honour :D
It also had laser rangefinder which came with a rumour that if you pointed at someone's charlie-ollocks it could sterilise them. Almost certainly complete rubbish, but didn't stop us pointing it at the meat and two veg of those we scored higher than a 5 on the d**khead scale as they walked past.
OX 276 gearbox oil.
I think you've stretched your claim to fame if it was a MK1 with RR CV12T engine. I was the VMA maintaining the Challenger (known as P1 as it was the original Prototype no.1) at SEE Arborfield within the security compound for the ECE's to train on from Sept 1983 - Sept 1986. I still have the SEME Bordon Challenger technical handout book in my loft and certainly it would have been a SEME course in either late 83 or early 84. I then spent my last 2yrs at 7 Armoured Fallingbostel before leaving end of 1988.
@@steviep7706 We also visited SEE at the time to given instruction on the gbox controller I think it was, which were like a bank of pcbs. Only vague recollection of that bit as we didn't repair those but obviously needed to know how to replace the parts. I think we also learned about the TOGs coolant system as were required to know how to safely discharge and remove the pressurised coolant tank that formed part of it. Freaking awesome you still have a technical handout. I'd love to see one of those and have a peruse through it.
I served at 11 Armd Wksp and we were supporting 2 RTR at the time who were one of the first regiments to get the Challenger. Did the same a year or so later with the Warriors too.
I’m sorry to hear you were sent to Bordon. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time.
Cheers Dits
Brit here. These are, in my opinion, the main issues we have with defence:
- An incredibly wasteful procurement process. Far too much spend with far too little to show for it. AHEM, AJAX.
- A lack of mass. In the number of platforms, stockpiles, our active and reserve forces, we don't have enough. 148 Challenger 3's is a joke.
- A lack of continuity. Even with the war in Ukraine very clearly demonstrating to us that industrial scale warfare is still very much in fashion, we have still been slow to recapitalise our DIB and provide the long term guarantees (ie, contracts) required to get the cogs of industry turning once again
- Lazy recruitment. Delegating recruitment to Capita (a private company) is a dereliction of duty
- Widespread complacency. Peace is taken for granted and the need for readiness is dismissed. Hell, when the government announced that it would be testing a nationwide alert system, there was widespread panic about "warmongering". People need to understand and accept that we live in a more dangerous world, and that we need to be prepared.
Same sicknesses in Germany, too.
@@jackmclane1826i m realy curious how germany, after decades of condemning everything military or remotly patriotic, will try to reverse that course.
You sum it up perfectly. There's a frightening disconnect between those in Whitehall and the real world. What will it take to bring reality to these stuffed shirts? Russian tanks smashing through the Baltic states? But of course by then it will be game over 😮
You forgot the main problem the feeking tories
@@myowndata Probably slowly.
I do wonder if the continued rise of French and Polish influence in the EU military sphere will force Germany to up their game to ensure they don't lose their influence... or if they will step aside and settle into a tertiary position
The boiling vessel ( BV) in the tank is crucial , not only for Tea , but boiling the rations and you can cook rice, noodles , pasta , eggs.
The loader is the mother of the tank but loading is secondary to the primary task of making a brew !
Why would any country design a tank without a water boiler??
I wouldn't go to war without a working BV😅
It's still loading, it's just loading the crew.
A tank is a truly horrible place to spend an extended amount of time in, especially the ones with auto loaders.
The BV increases morale enough to actually have a noticeable effect on combat effectiveness.
You can do a lot with a portable water boiler I'm surprised other countries haven't adopted a similar system
"The first thing we should focus on is the turret"
.... Incorrect. The first thing we should focus on is the Tea.
Without T, you have no Turret, and no Tank.
my mistake! an easy one to make : )
@@ReallyRealBenMills
i see what you did there...very good.
Indeed good sir, indeed 🇬🇧☕
Tea and Purpose
In regards to the tea:
* The titanium teapot is built into the main cannon's firing chamber, harvesting the heat from each shell. The placement of the teapot has been better optimized for the turret crew to access over the Challenger 2. It takes 2 shots to boil the water.
* Teabags are stored with the ammunition for the most efficient combat brew. Combat is, ofc, the time when tea is most needed to soothe the nerves during intense combat.
* The milk is stored in a separate milk resovoir, and kept cool through a heat exchanger system, that transfers the heat to the high durability kevlar combat teacup holders. This keeps the tea at the optimal temperature.
* Honey is dispensed seperately, and is chosen for its emergency anti-bacterial properties. It has a manual pump for personal taste.
* Kevlar Combat Teacups (or "KCT's", as they are known in His Majesty's Royal Tank Brigade) have saved many tank crew lives, preventing shrapnel injuries since they were introduced in the Challenger 2. KCT's are made from a kevlar composite that is thermally insulating everywhere but the base, where it interacts with the heat exchanger. There are tea and milk ports on the KCT. Despite the KCT's having a lid to seal them (for obvious reasons), they do also come with a small handle. There is also a hinge system for the lid for biscuit dunking. Proper use of KCT's, including the all important "pinky maneuver" is drilled into all british military personnel during basic training.
* Special military MRE biscuits (otherwise known to those philistine yanks as "cookies") are stored in a special dispenser at each operating station. These are each formulated to be high in protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals, and a combination of fast, medium, and slow release energy. Each biscuit is 10% of a soldier's RDA's, and 10 biscuits are provided per crew member per day. They come in classic Rich Tea, Hobnob, Malted Milk, and Digestive varieties. After much debate in militry tribunals and then parliament, these have all been upgraded to chocolate varieties for morale.
Caramel hobnobs are Gucci as fuck.
@@OldNavajoTricks the caramel messes with the texture for me.
@@StitchesLovesRats Lifelong marzipan and caramel addict, the only thing that is above those and must never be tainted by them,
is Bacon 🙂🤘
@@OldNavajoTricks ooh, what's that square cake called again..?
@@StitchesLovesRats Fucking Battenburg haha!
shit town, lovely cake :-D
Q: Why does the UK only have 221 MBTs while Poland is acquiring over 1300 tanks?
A: The UK is a collection of islands (fyi, tanks aren’t really that good at swimming 😉) while Poland is on a flat wide plain with no significant geographical defensible features that has been the playground for ambitious European leaders with land armies for half a millennium & has a population that doesn’t want a repeat of that history ….
Because NATO. Why would GB spend money on defense when the US will just print more money and cover that? Leaves GB more money to fund its overburdened public entitlements.
Another factor is Poland's and U.K.'s proximity to Russia! Poland is positioning itself to be the BULLDOG between Russia and the EU.
@@T_bone No one in NATO spends a single cent on defense. For what? Not a single NATO country is worth to conquer. For what? They got shit.
@@T_bone Also helps us to keep and deploy an effective nuclear detterent.
@@T_bone, Poland is in NATO too. And each NATO member contributes different capabilities. The UK is one of the few nations other than the USA that has a military with expeditionary capability (that means they can project military power well beyond their borders with their own sealift & airlift capability).
Poland is a primarily land based military whose sole security threat is 🇷🇺 who would threaten them and the Baltic nations with a land army reinforced with tanks & IFVs.
If you are Poland, you need to be able to stop armored & mechanized infantry, so tanks (& attack helicopters) are what you need, not a Navy. If you are an island nation, you need a navy & air force to defend yourself. An army allows you to project power over the horizon (once the Air Force &/or Navy transports you there). Lastly, say what you will about the UK, they are one of the only non-US NATO countries with nuclear submarines (that can reach anywhere in the world without requiring refueling) & the UK & France are the only non-US NATO countries with nuclear deterrence. The UK may not be the US (btw, no one matches us) but they are one of the biggest military players on the globe
I was here when the title said "Challeneger"
facts
I remember
Pepperidge Farm remembers
Because that thing's straight out of Terminator.
And “Britian’s”
Ayyyy, Telford Resident here, all I’ll say is this is the first time telfords ever produced something significant since the Industrial Revolution lmao,
But beyond that a slight side note is don’t try so hard to pronounce things in England, we have had centuries to find the laziest way to say our towns, and Telford is no exception, instead of saying Tel-Ford just say Telfud, that’s the closest you’ll get to the British way of saying it without a painfully boring lesson in the very wierd nuances or British dialects and pronunciation.
It’s like Worcestershire and how that’s pronounced Wuster-Sher (or shire if you’re of a slightly more fancy ilk)
Heh! Great explanation... And the Epsom and Farnham Armor...? Just pronounce it Epsum and Farnum... 😉
@@Oo_Tigger_oO Epsum un Farnum 😉
Haha I was reading this and read it at telfud, I'm east yorksha
@@Oo_Tigger_oOone that always gets people is my old local airfield, it was called halfpenny green but pronounced the old way, so instead of it being Half-penny it was said Hay-p-knee
Or some folks also called it Halp-knee
And all the child abuse that has been highlighted lately in Telford.
A bit sad they let the old rifled canon barrel go. The new one will be more versatile but the old one held the world record for the longest distance kill. A Challenger 1 from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards destroyed an Iraqi tank at a range of 5,000 metres (3.1 mi). This was the longest recorded tank to tank kill in the history of armored warfare.
Even sadder that they took the tanks away from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards!
Fascinating fact Dude! Cheers.
Always remember a short smooth bore is much cheaper than a longer rifled barrel, it also will last longer. Everything is a trade off. British doctrine learnt in ww2 has been long range maximum destructiveness. Oh smooth bore is older than rifled ,its a musket cheaper than a rifle simpler last longer just not as good
@@websterlf And the US Marines.
Who would win? The best British tank VS a simple RPG warhead clumsily taped to a cheap drone
According to the MOD - one of the biggest upgrades has been the TTT of the BV has been reduced by 20 seconds (Time-to-Tea) - which means an extra 20 cups of Tea can be brewed by the crew in a typical 24 hour combat period - leading to an overal increase in crew effectiveness of 30 percent.
LOve this 😂😂
That’s the difference between defeat and victory.
As long as you can still make coffee, I don't care! But it has to be filtered coffee not instant!
Imagine what they could do with a supply of chocolate biscuits 👀
@@gdfggggg British Empire 2.0
‘3rd man’ in any vehicle is responsible for keeping the boiling vessel ready to make tea. No joke. I have been that man manny times in a warrior.
Same here mate!
Did you fight harder against the enemy, or the other tankers teabag choice?
U getting ur warrior turret upgraded? or changing to ajax?
@@mckenr07 depended on what they were drinking old boy!
@@jon9021 in the voice of Bernard Manning “so a Geordie, a scouser and a posh twat are in a tank fighting over a teabag…”
Omg for someone is watching at home in Telford i burst out laughing was not expecting the town i live in be mentioned in anyway and how you butchered the name was the best gift anyone could give me! Thank you! ❤️
As someone from down the A5 in Shrewsbury, hearing him call it "TELL-FORD" made me chuckle.
Farn-HAM too....
Good job they didn't make these in Loughborough!
And the Challenger 2 powerpacks are currently being remanufactured down the road in Shrewsbury.
"Telfud and Farnum"
@@chefscreations Or Worcester!
Fascinating vid, thanks for making it. As a brit, I'd often wondered why we hadn't upgraded our challenger 2 even tough it's still all in all a pretty great tank. Now I know. Also, as a brit, your accent is delightfully all over the place. Please don't stop doing it!!!😆
It's really subtle, but the use of "Maths" instead of the American, "Math" is spot on.
I saw what he did there.
I'm still wondering what he wants to tell Ford! 😛
QUIK MAFS
@@oxydoxxo 2+2 IS 4 MINUS 1 THAT'S 3
@@tokinsloff312
For our American friends; it is generally pronounced "Telfud"
Another reason Poland wants 1300 tanks when we have a couple hundred is also mostly logistics. We’re a little island about as far away as you can be from ‘the enemy’. Better to get planes over the enemy in hours than tanks in days/weeks. Poland is on their front door across ground. Tanks make much more sense for them.
Yup. The more tanks you build, the more aircraft/ships you need to construct to transport them.
@@Tremadog102and to protect that armor
sure, Poland will face ground forces just as strongly as air attack.
The difference is Poland has an army and the UK more like a shrinking trophy force that feeds one "once we had many, were many and achieved a lot."
The british have their royal navy that's why.
Considering most of war is spent not fighting, i would say a mobile armoured tea kettle is an extremely useful bit of kit.
Indeed all modern combat soldiers have said most of their wars were spent hanging around waiting for those brief, deadly moments of activity.
Fortunately all of my carrer was spent "hanging around": on the bus, off the bus stuff....
You can certainly say that a new challenger has appeared on the battlefield
The single Challenger destroyed within Ukraine was immobilised after losing a track to a mine. It was then hit by Lancet drones and a Kornet ATGM, leading to stored ammo explosion. All four crew reportedly survived unharmed after bailing when the track/running gear was lost.
I'm not slating the Challenger, but to pretend they haven't been a massive disappointment in Ukraine, is just untrue.
@Samuel-hd3cp In what way? Only 14x Challengers were donated. Challenger 2 opened the doorway for other Western Tanks. Without Challenger, Leopards and Abrams would not have followed. Sure one has been lost however however 14 tanks were never going to rout thousands of Russian tanks. I'd say that the 3000+ lost Russian tanks have been far more disappointing than any of the Western tanks. At least the most important component of Western tanks tend to survive - the crew.
@@Samuel-hd3cp That's directly the opposite of what the Ukrainian's are saying.
@@humptydumpty9177pro libtard media tell you that?
@@Samuel-hd3cp. Leopards and Abrams are also doing the artillery job. One of the biggest issues with all these tanks is the lack of air support. Tanks work best in concert with infantry and air support. The combined arms approach increases tactical effectiveness. As a challenger 2 commander I’m fully aware of the challies downfalls but I’m also fully aware of its strengths. When used correctly with the right assets available ch2, and leopard, Abrams are a force to be reckoned with. The biggest problem is, Ukraine does not have air superiority and therefore cannot use the combined arms approach effectively.
Now, I would like to add. Having worked on ch1 and 2. It’s always been underpowered so an engine upgrade would not go a miss.
Dick Van Dyke called, he wants his British accent back.
Totally. It hurts my ears when he tries the British accent.
😂
As a Brit, it's like that type of comedy that brings a little bit of sick into your mouth!
Awroight guvna, oim Bri'ish doncherknow! Apples an' pears, cuppa tea...etc....It's the stereotype that keeps on giving 🤣
I can't stop myself. I want to but I dont know how.
"and can it still brew tea while slaying the enemy" Of course, it's LITERALLY the law.
friendly reminder that the British once bought every ounce of tea on the market for an entire years harvest just to make sure they'd have enough on hand during wW2. They knew they could feed their soldiers hard tack and potatoes without complaining too loudly, they knew their citizens would put up with rationing, but they knew their empire would crumble without tea. Hell, the Opium Wars and Chinese century of humiliation were both over the British tea habit; the Brits broke the back of the worlds largest and oldest empire like Bane breaking Batman all for their love of hot leaf water.
@arthas640 Not surprising when you consider that "cartel avocado war" actually a thing that manifest in our time
@@arthas640 Also, back in WW2, during the north Africa campaign, multiple British tanker crews were killed while leaving the tank to brew tea. They started putting the kettle inside the tank after this.
I know it's the common joke, but for anyone actually wondering, it's because something like 70% of British MRE's are "boil in the bag", so somewhere to boil water is necessary for hot meals. (and in the case of some specific ones, a vaguely edible meal at all)
@@kiritotheabridgedgod4178 Like the muesli, which, for some stupid reason, is meant to be boiled
Muesli is bad, boiled muesli made me legitametly throw up. Now, I'll admit I'm a pretty fussy eater, but that is the only thing that has ever made me retch
Good video buddy, it’s nice to see some recognition for British Armour!
As a Brit I'm the first to "big up" our kit, and the lads who run em are second to none. However, the UK has 50p and a packet of quavers for a defence budget and we failed to meet our recruitment targets again for a force that's 70kish in size. The truth is that there will be a handful of these made and even less operational at any given time. Meanwhile Poland is ordering over a thousand off the shelf S. Korean MBTs. Where did we go wrong?
Welcome in the team. Greetings from Germany 😂 It‘s the exact same bs with the bundeswehr
When you think about the size of the British Army of the Rhine and where we are now, it’s humbling.
@@simonxxx6179 👋 hey mate, I think it's the same in most western countries. Even now our population and politicians continue on, in the blind hope nothing will ever happen 💩 Fingers crossed it doesn't, but we all know that weakness just encourages it.
What do you want ? Hospitals or tanks ??
That's literally what it boils down to.
1) for the lack of manpower I would say in a word « multiculturalism » in short but to develop it doesn’t create a cohesive nation, a lack of patriotisme If u will 2) For its military capabilities I would say that the UK relayed on the USA for everything but maybe that war in Ukraine and the lack of absolute support might have nudge the UK to increase its defence capabilities and they could try to free themselves from the puppet-like relationship
For real .. if that water heater malfunctions, the tank is considered unfit for service. The Brits take their tea seriously!
Not just tea, there is coffee consumed as well (important to Americans and other Europeans) the BV does a great job of heating MRE's as well. So, not just tea.
Without keeping up the morale a tank is worthless within a week.
I think the actual function is to heat up the MRE's?
Boiling water may b life-saving at some point, right?
British Army also relies on hot water for preparing their MREs, but it's still funny.
one counterpoint I would make to comparing tank numbers between Poland and Britain is Poland doesn't have to worry about paying for a navy.
While not having carriers and SSNs, Poland actually has a navy with 1 SSK , 2 OHP frigates and a few corvettes, missile boats and minesweeper etc Infact their future frigate is based on the Type 31 1st of which will be built in UK and the rest at Poland
People forget the huge cost of maintaining a permanent at sea deterrent; £5 billion per year I was told. You could buy a hell of a lot of tanks for that.
And they will ned a lot of tanks due to there open terrain to belarus. Only in the worst case of course.
@@Archer89201 Still not a large navy, though you don't need a large navy in the shallow baltic.
Who is getting Konigsberg at the end of this, BTW...
People like to make jokes about the focus on Tea and such but focusing on such things is one of the biggest factors that contributed to high troop morale during wars.
In WW1 the French army made notes on how seeing the British forces being supplied to which such simple things resulted in them having far greater discipline and morale when compared to the French forces
In WW2, American forces would actually trade items with British forces and noted how much better they felt after being able to have something as basic as a cup of tea.
Our ODS upgraded bradleys added a hotwater boiler in them for cooking and washing, since we lived on them for 4+ months in ODS. huge improvement imo.
When served, heard a rumour US trialled microwave ovens. Which seemed emininently sensible. Supposedly just led to food poisoning. Which think came about as that is not how the US re-supply is organised i.e. to have tea, coffee, etc the UK tank is fully rationed at all times for four men for x number of days. US vehicles never are/were.
We had to show the yanks how to keep warm in the western desert fighting Rommel in the 1940s it was just petrol in a tin box
Click bait title, you said you'll talk about the challeneger but you talked about the challenger 😱😏
Oh, contraire. The Challenger name was only used for models 1 and 2. "Challeneger" is the model 3, and the "Challenenger" will be the model 4, with additional syllables used for follow-on models. The name of the model 9 is expected to 'challenge' everyone in the armor community.
Arnold challeneger
challenig--- my lawyer advised me not to finish this word.
The 4th version will be the Challenegerer, and 5th, the Challenegerest.
@@johnsmith-jq1uc I didn't realize Arnold Schwarzenegger was a dirty word. Someone should tell the people of CA
I've heard its got a Greggs Bakery in the rear compartment.
🤣🤣🤣👍
Actually, there is direct hot-line to Greggs on demand as part of the comms set. Just look for the big G on the keyboard.
ooohh yeah, bacon baps for brakfast.....
Love their 3 pack of sausage rolls. Enough calories to get you through a winters day.
crazy to hear Telford mentioned here. I even applied to join Rheinmetall BAE but didn't get in, love the videos and love from Telford!
As a Brit, love you doing the accents :) I genuinely now get 80% of my defence insight from you - thank you for running such a great channel.
I thought it sounded vaguely Australian.
@@colinmorrison5119 i've heard lots of americans can't tell the difference between a british and ozzy accent
@@lc5176Yup, I'm a Brit and when In Vancouver for 3 weeks I gave up telling the bloody Canucks I wasn't an Aussie!
Tell Ford, lol.
148 C3 tanks is not enough for the British Army, but it would be hard to add more than another 56, as there are not enough C2 hulls left to be converted. Yes, Poland will have 1300 tanks, but the British have 4x Trident Submarines, 7x SSN, 2x 65k ton aircraft carriers, 8x C-17 large transport aircraft. Poland does not have these items.
Not to mention the satellite system "Skynet".
What good are subs in a land war with troops ferried by plane
and a moat, 148 are not a lot but its more than almost anyone else can deliver to the uk shores
@@stephengrange5300 missiles, you dumb dumb, subs fire missiles
@@stephengrange5300 An SSN can launch Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against enemy concentrations, including airfields. It can also use torpedos to sink enemy transport ships carrying tanks.
The British will engineer an absolute beast of a tank only to make 200 and not be able to recruit enough men to use them
That many?
Well there's going to be over 300 318 I do believe. The recruitment is probably an issue in most western countries due to the younger generations not wanting to do a hard day's work and get their hands dirty.
@@philhasacamera recruitment is down because the wages and conditions are terrible, not some bullshit about the generation not wanting to work.. something people say about every generation
@@philhasacamera"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." - Socrates
Every generation seems to think that the next generation is weak or entitled. The issue is with wages and the work environment.
@@jarradk174exactly! Why would anyone sign up to serve when it pays less than working in a local supermarket?
Your Telford footie stats were hilarious!!Nice one Cappy that did surprise me somewhat!
The BV is THE best part of British armour. I used to crew the Warrior IFV and that had 2 boiling vessels (BV’s) we wouldn’t leave camp without at least one in the back.
On the Challenger 1 and 2 the explosive propellant was stored seperetely in armoured bins on the floor of the tank. This was the reason why so few Challengers were ever destroyed in battle compared to Abrams and Leopard 2. If the Challenger 3 has ammunition stowed in the turret then it is more vulnerable, that is why the change to the 120mm smoothbore was so long in coming.
All three tanks similar protection.
Main reason for less challengers is less tank time on battlefront.
@@knoll9812 How do you work that out Challengers were in combat in the 1st and second Gulf Wars just as long as Abrams. The US lost 32 Abrams though most were "friendly fire". Turks lost 9 Leopards to old Soviet era missiles in a few weeks fighting in Syria. Just as bad as T-72 for turrets blown off
This isn't entirely accurate a description of the UK position. CR MarkI/II had glycol surrounded fibreglass propellant bins. The intent being that any splinter penetration into the ammo bins would be doused by glycol. This was then deemed inadequate. Such that MarkIII CR1 had the armoured bins, of what seemed from decades old memory, to be about 1cm steel plate. Presumably these and/or their design philosophy carried over into CR2. Thus it was long known that the Chieftain/Challenger series were vulnerable to hull penetrations into the propellant bins - per se with any tank.
The UK approach was obviously sub-standard to blow out panels on Abrams. At the known expense of a greater bomb load: 55 US v 64 UK (CR1). Indeed it was always possible to load more on the UK tanks in a free form let's all die manner given the three piece nature of the ammunition versus the huge single round smoothbore behemoth. In a war, especially as to the UK the last major use of armour was as artillery shelling KR, this is/was an important criteria. Granby did not change this outlook: bomb load matters.
The three piece ammunition may not have been as accurate but, if time allowed, more rounds on target acheived the same end. If time allowed... And granted when expecting to meet 3rd Shock Army in the Cold War the time might not have been there.
@@ostwelt The Armoured ammunition bins were fitted to Challenger 1 Mk2 before the Gulf War. Challenger1 Mk3 had armoured bins from the factory has had Challenger 2.
British tanks are the best armoured in the world, Abrams has British armour. Fitting armoured ammo bins was a precaution and used since WW2 on British tanks. The armoured bins on the floor of the tank is far safer than stowing ammunition in the turret bustle were armour is thin. The Abrams Armoured box helps save crew but the tanks usually don't survive the fire. The Leapard is the worst, a hit on the turrer usually blows it off killing the crew.
As to gun accuracy Challenger took out an Iraqi tank at 5 kilometers. Thats twice the distance ever achieved by Abrams or Leopard 2 and Russian guns are useless over 1,5 km
@@billballbuster7186 Yeah, but what is next to the driver either side behind a very thin glacis plate? Bit like the Abrams bustle is a CR driver's cab...
My point wasn't the virtues of the bins or even location but that once penetrated by main armament all bets are off in any tank. Armoured bins are only against spall and shrapnel nothing more.
Sure, location might help time to detonation and thus crew escape. But I don't measure those merits just the tank. And if penetrated, serially definitely, then it is probably a gonna.
Best armoured, whatever. On paper CR1 insufficiently and thus, more so M1 and Leo2. Now, again same-same against drones. Believe the Kool-Aid as I once did too but look at the stats.
"We're here to kick ass and boil tea."
And we’re all out of tea
One major thing is that the UK doesn't need tanks at the same rate as Poland or other continent nations. We are more dependent on our navy, but that's still underfunded. Just not quite as bad as it can be seen here... the UK could barely fit 1500 tanks in the country lol
Don't worry if it's like 82 they'll send trawlers into a warzone.
Have you seen the Navy recently?
I drove a 113 that I screwed the governor out on and screwed the accel pedal stop all the way down. (Give a grunt enough time)
In Hohenfels, I jumped D-21 off the ground. My 1Sgt said I should get aviator wings because he'd never seen that before.
I blew the transmission about six months later during Reforger. We had 'er running again in two hours. Meanwhile, the squad got a nice nap.
Real talk. I'm an Englishman. I drink (and so do most of everybody I know) about 6 or 7 cups of tea a day. We need it to function here. Even prisoners are offered a cup of tea as a right. If we couldn't brew tea in battle, we wouldn't function properly. No joke.
I think Canadians were rationed Canadian club
along with a custard cream!
I don't know if "real talk", you know the Internet and all that. that said, I don't drink tea or coffee, I although I can understand the concept, of a comfort's of home. I also can understand how this helps with POWs, especially the Russian conscripts, now their treated liked... human-beings
@@timothykelly5588 C,& C, and soda, if you can't go through war without being drunk and stupid, what's the... Fun?
Thanks for saying ‘Maths’☺️
Love your channel. Good educational information with a touch of humor. 💯👍👍
It’s called the Girls und Panzer rule. No video on a British tank may complete without at least one reference to the tea making facilities.
Let me fix your title: 'Britian's NEW Challeneger 3 Tank needs to chill out '
They fixed it XD pro strat is make a typo intentionally so people will correct it => 📈📈algorithm.
*Be incredibly subtle, even to the point of formlessness* . This is gonna be a tradition now...
I'll be back
The UK needs more tanks.
For an army to function, it must be able to take heavy losses yet still fight.
'Just enough,' tanks isn't enough.
if you base things off the current threat, having alot of tanks, is not a priority , let's hope they have got the rest right
With limited money available, the UK has to choose carefully from the various things that it needs more of. As an island nation, comissioning more escort vessels and getting more combat aircraft is a much better (though also much bigger) investment. And right now there is a crying need for escort vessels, not to mention more development on the two newer aircraft carriers. No point in having those if they can't be deployed properly.
those tanks are ample folr an Island nation in an alliance. We aren't a superpower you know.
@@Steelninja77 Used to be, but unfortunately, not anymore. WW1 and 2 really, really did numbers on the UK that- frankly the fact that the UK is even halfway back to fighting capacity is remarkable.
@@B.D.E. We haven't even got limited money, military budget is massive but i don't know where it all goes.
The boiling vessel is a very important piece of equipment. In the saladin armoured vehicles in the lybian desert in the 1960s our boiling vessel was a life saver.
The problem truly is how few Challenger 3 will be made .
it will not. just stealing money
did you watch the video properly though, he explains in rather great detail why that is. Mostly due to a few precise reasons. 1. being we are an island nation and our army isnt as important. 2. As a Nato nation it is decided that the british army isnt of huge importance to nato above our Navy aswell as our high technological advancements that advance nato as a whole such as Nuclear, space and cyber technologies which is where the bulk of the defense spending goes. As a memeber of nato we should prioritize our position within NATO over what the public think we should be doing as at the end of the Day NATO is the one leading the defense of europe and knows what europe needs for its defense as a whole.
@@ashleygoggs5679 perfectly put
@@ashleygoggs5679 It's also because we are upgrading our Challenger 2s, which we have less than 300 of in working condition.
We don't have spare parts because all the factories were closed down like 30 years ago and we have been cannibalizing challies for parts.
Even though what you say is true, we have no choice but to have so few challenger 3s anyway.
@@spamstabberwhatever the true number of tanks that are functional, it should be maxed. It costs a lot to just start a program like this. They should max all the potential they possibly can. They could even upgrade the Ukrainian ones too.
15 seconds in and I knew things were legit: "can it brew tea" 😅😅
German tanks can deliver beer steins on their MG barrel without spilling a drop!
@@timothykelly5588 Not much use if it's outside the turret at the other end of the barrel though! Unless it's got a straw, maybe?
THE WAY HE PRONOUNCES TELFORD IS MAKING ME WANT TO DIE
Not as bad as actually living there
Chobham is what got me. I live in Hampshire….. Hampshire, Illinois, USA and I think we’re all pronouncing it incorrectly lol HAMP-SURE 🤷🏻♂️ I always thought you kinda pronounced the shire part like how it’s spelled, but knowing me I’m probably wrong. Teach me your ways so I can inform the people of this town! 😂Fun fact: Hampshire, Illinois was used to house 260 German POWs from the Afrika Corps. They were used to harvest corn and peas and then can them. A lot never went back to Europe. They weren’t hardcore SS guys or anything, just enlisted men. They’d go to church here on Sundays( most to the Lutheran church and some to the Catholic Church) with the locals. All but just a few were able to assimilate to American life and culture.
@@OleDonKedic Shire is usually pronounced Sher. So Hamp-sher! I'm from Rugeley in Staffordshire, but we pronounce it Rudglee Stafford-shuh!
@@Davey-BoydAhhh, so I’ve been the weirdo pronouncing it wrong this whole time lmfao. Everyone says SURE and I kinda annunciate the SHIRE like a fkn hobbit. Appreciate the info.
@@OleDonKedic About the POW's, same happened here. My old college principal was German, he was a ME 109 pilot who got shot down in the Battle of Britain and captured. He never left! Many Germans stayed if their home ended up in the Soviet zone. A lot of Poles ended up here too for the same reason - they didn't get on with the Germans that stayed lol!
A little-known post-WWII report on tank losses in the British Army found that about 37% of ALL tank losses occurred while the tank crews were not actually present inside the tank! While this kept human losses low it was deemed unacceptably high in vehicle losses.
The main reason? The crews were outside having a brew-up! With the advent of the revolutionary new Centurion tank, the boiling vessel was installed in each tank.
A quick read of the comments below by people better informed than I will show the many and varied reasons for this innovation. And so it has remained a permanent fixture in all British armoured vehicles ever since. Crew morale is an integral part, and a most important one, of successful tank crews and their fighting capability.
General Ineptitude needs to be demoted back to Major Ineptitude. And preferably all the way back to Private Ineptitude where he doesn't bother anyone.
I would say having worked on Challenger and other armour with the older torsion bar suspension that hydrogas is no more mechanically complicated or maintenance intensive. Mechanically it's just a high pressure tank bolted to the hull with a wheel station on the bottom filled with oil just like a standard shock absorber and pressurised nitrogen gas to act as the spring. Maintenance is just daily testing with a crow bar for resistance exactly like a torsion bar and scheduled checks with a pumping trolly and nitrogen bottle to replace any escaped gas. When the internal seals begin to fail replacement is fairly easy but you do need a crane and lifting beam still better than trying to fish razor sharp grease covered shards of snapped torsion bar out of a very small hole. I'd say both systems fail at about the same rate for much the same reasons components ageing or overly aggressive incompetent driving. An added bonus of the hydrogas system being all externally mounted upgraded or even fully redesigned units could be easily fitted without changing the hull as long as they fit in the space and use the same mounting points. Not true of torsion bars which are limited to a narrow tube through the bottom of the hull and the machined anchor point on the other end.
I think that was some of the reason for the Centurion's longevity was the Bogie suspension assemblies were able to be retrofitted with more refined sub assemblies later on with lessons learnt in the manufacturing.
As someone who changes broken parts daily in less challenging environments, I have to bow to your obvious knowledge of working on Tank suspension systems.
@@i.rjardine312 the biggest advantage of the system is it's unparalleled smoothness on rough terrain making gunnery more accurate by giving the turret stabilization systems less work to do. You can with practice and a few handholds move about on the tank decks while driving cross country ( don't ask) . It's actually a heavy duty version of a system developed and used extensively by Citroen post WWII their cars gave such a smooth ride they were used extensively as camera cars during horse racing events back when the cameras used film and digital stabilization was a pipe dream. The biggest problems with the Citroen system was they had a centralised pressure tank with pipework connected to rams at each wheel all those connections under constantly changing pressure suffered from metal fatigue leading to difficult and costly repairs. The Challenger has each wheel attached directly to it's own tank by a ram with no pipes or joints.
You know Grandfather actually served under General Ineptitude during WW2.
General Ineptitude is in charge of the British Army.
It should not be too long before all war equipment will be remote operated, nobody will have to be in the line of fire.
Always happy to see a new video from you !
Future tanks need their own launchable search and destroy drones, i.e. Switchblade 600, and a retrievable scouting drone, maybe sent up by wire, and a atgm self defense system.
and what about landmines, since Russia essentially ruined the counter offensive last year by laying lots of them.
Every tank should have an autoloading surveillance drone launcher. A $5,000 Ai steered drone with thermal cameras and laser designator would be a massive upgrade to those one viewpoint tank mounted sights.
It may be better for the tank to be specialized to what tasks a tank does best and to have a separate drone team, (hidden from view) and using a data link so the tank receives the information it needs.
The Hydragas suspension system was developed by the British Motor Corporation (by the original designer of the Mini, sir Alec Issigonis) as an improved system for several of their range of cars, including the original Mini, which was first designed with rubber components instead of springs for the compact small car. The Hydragas system gave a vastly improved ride in a very compact package, again obviating the need for bulky springs and shock absorbers, as the system acted as both.
But watching Ukrainians changing Hydrogas units wearing shorts and flip flops still makes me shudder (the weigh about 350kg).
Great Video sir. Also loved your input on the Military Mysteries
Best thing is that the turret can be put on any nato tank. A leopard 2 could have a challenger 3 turret put on it if the crew wanted
we arnt at mad max level yet
i dont see the benefit of frankenstein tanks
@@ashardalondragnipurake just because you don’t see the benefit of it does not take from the fact that the challenger 3 turret can still be fitted on to other nato tanks
@@YorkshireMemes i do see the benefit
frankentanks
we would be in a horrible situation to need frankentanks
better to not build for the frankentank fallback situation and specialize to avoid the frankentank necessity
@@ashardalondragnipurake you’re just trolling aren’t you? Nobody could be taking the piss as much as you
Franken tank is still better than 'nofkn' tank! 😉
Tanks ... for another fine video
The BV system is definitely at the top of the "priorities" list. Having served alongside the British I quickly learned that nothing gets done before they have their "cuppa"!
I like tanks, but they don't swim very well. So it makes sense for the UK to spend more on boats that on tanks. 🙂
and Planes*
Liked this one mate, I was 10 years in British army Armoured Corp Recce . .... lots of food for thought in this one . Cheers
'Telfud' you...
Great article Chris.
Challenger 2 is not just a modification and upgrade of Challeneger 1. They have exceptionally low parts commonality. Chally 2 is its own vehicle.
My father in law worked at Vickers and helped design the Challenger 2 optics and guidance system
I worked on the development of the Chobham Armour back in the mid 80s in Bristol. Some 'out of this world' experiences, but of course i cannot say to threat of death 🤫
I've never seen anyone attempt a British accent using a combination of Upper-class and Cockney
I've heard a Brit attempt an American accent using a combination of Georgia and Brooklyn.
Sounded Australian to me
Regarding NGVA - I worked on the equivalent IDF Beacon system - for 20 years... It's a great idea, but getting it from "hey, I can see myself on this moving map" through "I can send this target report to my commanding officer and he can see it on his map" to "we got this target package from the air force, lets download it to the company's tanks" took 20 years, during which we kept being promised "the next version will fix all the bugs, you just have to now replace all the wiring and computers, again", again and again.
Has the pace of processor advanced now stabilised sufficiently that each additional requirement doesn't need a new CPU? As did say 1980-2010?
Ironic, because I worked on certain similar "battlefield network" systems for the US and damn if your experience wasn't almost the same as mine. Granted, the systems showed marked improvement over the generations, but FAR from perfect. Some missions were spent more on fixing, calibrating, configuring said systems than the actual missions themselves and often times the system was bypassed altogether for more simpler radio communications.
@@ostwelt I think it was less about the processors themselves and more about everything else - sensors, connectivity (we went from voice multiplexed VHF, through dedicated RF circuits to 802.11), protocol updates and just the general fix the bugs and add software features.
Really like your channel . Well done man
Personally I would make the sight spin constantly at a rate giving a 360 view, incorporate AI movement sensors, anything that moves in the sights 360 degree vision, would be picked up tracked and identified.
Make this independent to the commander and gunners sights, you got a system that would automatically find and track targets so all the crew has to do is prioritize the targets.
What if a bush gets blown on by wind.
@@jace8785bush goes boom first 🤔🤷♂️
You can make the sights spin and give the crew VR headsets to have 360 degree vision.
That's what the weird globe on the top of recent Merkava tanks does.
Nice in theory; in practice rearward vision is a distraction as all your forces are following on suuch would just be confusing Blue-on-Blues. Would delgate this to solely AI especially in anti-drone capacity where a human is going to be too slow anyway. Over your arcs you need precision not sweeping movements so 270 becomes AI delegated or the loader can watch until things get spicy.... Really give it all to AI and take the crew out. Takes too much space etc....
The funniest TEA story from my regiment the Rhodesia African Rifles, one of our companies was carrying out an external attack on a terrorist camp deep inside Mozambique. The company commander set up his company tac HQ on a small hill over looking the camp but did not realize this was the crash RV for the camp. It then became a desperate fight to hold the hill. The company commander always had his batman make him tea at 6 in the morning and thus in the middle of the action his batman while taking pot shots at the enemy, diligently made his company commanders tea. Crawling over to his company commander he duly produced his tin cup of tea. Those African Masodja had a wicked sense of humour.
The mind boggles, Rhodesia African Rifles - respect in one form or another.
God bless rhodesia
During the Falklands conflict there's a story of an engineer from 9 Sqn RE sitting behind a rock during a period of incoming, making a brew. When asked what he was doing he pointed to each side of his rock saying "Rounds are landing there, rounds are landing there" indicated his own position and said "Rounds aren't landing here" therefore this was the obvious place to make a brew. Shrugged and carried on.
What tea ya drinking …. Erm Yorkshire tea, PG TIPS , Tetley ?🇬🇧
I thought that this video was utter class and the details of the challenger tank was represented really well...even if you are an American 😅
Had to give this an upvote just for the hilarious attempt at a British accent! 😆
Seriously though, great job on a well-researched video. I had heard the Chally 3 (or 2.5?) was coming but you wouldn't know it from the news in the UK.
As you pointed out, we are an island, so if enemies actually reach our shores then we're kinda screwed - hence why we are spending more on the Navy and Air Force. But this upgrade will mean we can field heavy armour in conjunction with our NATO allies, as and when needed.
Just wish we had more troops though. Even without heavy armour, well-equipped infantry can still do an awful lot.
Shame they got rid of the riffled barrel for a much weaker on, the rifled barrels had a huge increase in accuracy, only reason to change is ease of ammunition resupply, doesn’t seem to be worth the trade. Also now the ammo is a single piece again it brings back the possibility of having the ammo ignite 8f hit which the old one wouldn’t.
I was surprised that, even after all this time, British main gun ammo wasn't compatible with NATO. Sounds more like what the French would do.
Love that the word general ineptitude is mentioned and a photo of Boris Johnson is shown immediately
Great Video! I'm from Telford, nice surprise to see it featured.
It's nice to see Telford out there not with a focus on child abuse and pedophilia
I'm not from Telford but I've been there and I too am surprised to see it mentioned 😊
This tank is more a "Challenger 2 .5" than a Challenger 3. From every source I've studied, I've found the engine is basically the same as a Challenger 2. The listed "top speed" is the maximum speed right before engine and transmission damage occurs and the weight is problematic. I respect the Brits for building it in England as they will then have trained people when they decide to truly build a next-gen tank. The "Challenger 3" is a tank built and designed for 2024 not for the future.
could you make a video about the Roem? its the new israeli SPG that replaces the m109a5 Doher, which the IDF calls "the first automatic artillery"
I know it doesnt really make sense as there are other autoloaded SPG's but it would be cool to hear more about it, it just had its first production vehicle shoot some shells yesterday
I hope they provide a supply of Yorkshire Tea! You can't win with a inferior tea
Darjeeling!
Any comment suggesting any other tea.. you're wrong and you need to go buy yourself some lovely Yorkshire tea gold and think about your mistakes.
Have you got an inferiori-tea complex or something?
An*
I live in Telford and i didn't know the tanks were built here! Cool!
Yes, I thought that they were still made in Sunderland.
Vickers closed years and years ago.@@paulketchupwitheverything767
If the legendary Wolfgang was still around, the C3 still wouldnt be stealthy enough to evade him.
Soltau broke armoured vehicles. Wolfgangs blue mercedes bratty wagon just ploughed through.
Thank you for such an engaging and easy to listen to video
Yeah :)
"I just wish I had a British accent"
Come come sir, you have several. All at the same time.
Absolutely splendid!
The phycological element of element of food, but especially luxuries such as hot drinks (remember the British forces are designed for cold European theatres) is staggeringly high. Its so high, its a tangible war advantage.
One of your best documentaries I have watched.
That accent was like an AustralEnglIKiwi mashup! Noice!
Bro I love England for the brewing tea part, absolute BOSSANOVAS. 😎
I had a friend in London who said he had his first cup of coffee in OZ during the War
and"ain't had a bloody cup of tea since".
@@rick-be lmao 🤣 shit sounds like true story too
@@PashaSlavaUkraine It's true
Excellent work!
The good old challeneger.
Britian Challeneger?? Never heard of those
It's paired with the Wanker Infantry Fighting Vehicle.😜😂
Yup. where is Britian? Do you mean just Britain? Or are you including the entire UK?
@@tacfoley4443 The UK is pretty much the same as saying Great Britain ,although GB includes all the islands around UK
When I served in the Soviet army in a cabover truck, I heated canned meat directly on its V-8 engine while continuing to drive the car. You don’t need a 75-ton tank for this🙂
No, but it's so they can eat and drink while buttoned up.
The BV got added because British tank crews back in WW2 would often dismount (sometimes on the frontlines according to some stories) to brew tea but kept getting shot at, so later when they developed the Centurion tanks they added the BV so that crews could safely do their business inside their vehicles
@@Lo-tf6qt Whatever is save about when your crew sits in a not moving tank at the frontline, brewing tea. You do get that a tank is not some safe zone like in a video game. If you got the problem that the enemy is shooting at you outside, the same enemy will just attack the tank.
Maybe in WW2 anti tank weapons were spare at least at western front, where UK, USA, France only fought meager, ill equipped rests, since over 80% of the german casualties were in the east against the soviets.
But today were pretty much everything can destroy/disable a tank? And then you want to make tea in firing range? Hell, even unguided artillery would shred you for just standing there.
@@miriamweller812 It's still far more safe for your tank crew top remain in the tank and only be a viable target for anti tank weapons than for them to be outside the tank and vulnerable to literally everything. It also allows for a more rapid response to changing situations if the crew has to dismount less for basic comforts. And while man portable ATGMs and Anti Tank weapons are far more numerous then before, they are still less numerous than conventional weaponry. In Ukraine plenty of tanks are dug in to defensive positions under cover of other defensive positions to defend them from drone attack, in those situations you want to be inside the tank as much as possible, otherwise an assault by Russian forces or an artillery strike could end up wiping out the crew and leaving an entirely intact tank for the enemy. Unguided artillery is really not going to wipe out a tank unless it hits basically directly on the vehicle, where as if the crew is outside the vehicle you could lose them all instantly.
People have this weird perception where they seem to think every other person in the Russian army or in Nato forces has an anti tank weapon, but realistically they are weapons deployed in their own specific tank hunting teams or to cover whole sections and are not ideal weapons for use in the middle of assault actions where the operator will have to be stationary and an easy target for everything else. Man portable AT weapons are more effectively used from static positions and ambushes on already moving vehicles and those in the open. Drones and guided artillery are best used for stationary, dug in vehicles and again those will be even more deadly against a crew outside the vehicle.
You can also fry sausages and bacon in the BV's, its not normally done because its a nightmare to clean the grease and oil out but its one of the functions of the BV. To boil water, cook rations packs and fry fresh scoff
You forgot to mention the Ch2's long range strike record... and the Ch3 is rumoured to have an even longer effective firing range.
The result being you hit the target before they can even see you. Even if they did they can't even return fire until they're 2km closer and that's a real game changer in survivability.
Drones strike from a further distance than any Tank can.
The Ch3 is basically a Leopard 2 put into a Ch2. There is not much game changing going on there.
Likely going to be an exceptional tank that will never be fielded in substantial numbers. The UK isn't willing to spend on its military
Not enough service members to man it either, perhaps sell it
a much greater percentage is spent on the trident and navy than land forces, due to being an island nation
@@zamstig66 it is an island nation and should have a robust Navy. It two carriers are experiencing issues that barely work and they don't have enough sailors to man support ships which limits their ability to operate off of their own coast. The UK has too long depended on a nuclear arsenal to project force. If the UK is having issues with their Navy, what do their land forces look like?
0:12 Sneaky Cat
The Challenger 3 showcases impressive innovation, but its small fleet size raises questions about Britain's defense priorities in a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape.