UK agrees parallel development and production process for British Army Challenger 3
RBSL Challenger 3 undertakes first crewed firing trials at a UK range. (Photo: Rheinmetall)
In a bid to accelerate delivery of the British Army’s Challenger 3 main battle tank, which has just carried out its first crewed firings with the latest Rheinmetall 120mm L55A1 smoothbore gun, the UK has opted for an unconventional approach.
The UK government has given the green light for production of the British Army’s Challenger 3 main battle tank (MBT) to run concurrently with the ongoing development of the platform, a strategy out of the ordinary in an effort to meet an Initial Operating Capability (IOC) of 2027. Details of the plan were disclosed to Shephard at this week’s Defence IQ International Armoured Vehicles conference.
While the go-ahead for production would not normally be given until all of the development work had been completed, the decision to overlap is being seen as a calculated risk as Challenger 3 has a very tight development phase that has been exacerbated by the impacts of the 2020 Covid pandemic.
The 2027 IOC date could be a troop or squadron of Challenger 3 MBTs rather than a complete regiment, with a total of 148 Challenger 3 MBTs due to be delivered to the British Army by 2030. The vehicle is being developed by RBSL (a joint venture between Rheinmetall and BAE Systems) under an £800 million-plus (US$1.08 billion) contract covering both development and production.
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The Challenger 3 has also just reached a crucial milestone in its development phase with the first crewed firings having just taken place at a range in Scotland with the latest Rheinmetall 120mm L55A1 smoothbore gun.
Since the first of six pre-series Challenger 3 MBTs rolled off the production line at the RBSL Telford facility in April 2024, the vehicles have been put through a Reliability Growth Trials programme at various UK establishments including the Army Trials Unit at Bovington, southern England, which was previously the Armoured Trials and Development Unit.
An overhaul from the Challenger 2
In addition to the original Challenger 3 contract, the UK has also funded new 120mm ammunition and a suite of new passive armour called Epson under separate contracts.
Challenger 3 will also have the Trophy active protection system (APS) which is coming from Rafael Advanced Defence Systems of Israel rather than through EuroTrophy based in Germany, the latter of which has now started production for the system to be installed on new production Leopard 2A8 MBTs.
The Challenger 3 is essentially a Challenger 2 MBT chassis upgraded by Babcock at Bovington, which is then sent to RBSL at Telford where the brand-new three person turret is installed. Once final production Challenger 3s have been delivered, the first six pre-series will be brought up to the final build standard to ensure that there is complete fleet commonality.
Turret structures for Challenger 3 are provided by Pearson Engineering, with sights from Thales and – initially at least – 120mm L55A1 smoothbore guns from Rheinmetall in Germany followed by possible UK production.
The only export customer for the Challenger 2 MBT was Oman, which took delivery of 38 to an enhanced build standard for operation in the high ambient temperatures encountered in the Middle East.
New contract coming for armoured engineer vehicles
The UK Ministry of Defence will award a contract to RBSL later this year to undertake a mid-life upgrade (MLU) of the Titan and Trojan vehicles deployed by the Royal Engineers. The total value of the MLU is £76 million including VAT.
These were originally built at the Vickers Defence Systems facility at Newcastle Upon Tyne, which is now owned by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems of Israel, which also acquired Pearson Engineering.
The design authority of both of these vehicles is now RBSL; the same design authority for the current Challenger 2 and the Challenger 3 MBTs.
Within the Royal Engineers, these vehicles are known as the Engineer Tank System (ETS). A total of 33 Titan bridge layers and 33 Trojan engineer vehicles were built with final deliveries in June 2009, but most of these were subsequently reworked to a common build standard.
There were also two prototypes of each which were not upgraded to production standard as originally expected.
It has been stated that the MLU will run for a period of seven years from December 2026 through to late 2033, although this is subject to change.
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