Key facts
- Type
- Main battle tank
- Place of origin
- United Kingdom
- In service
- UK: 1983–2001 (repair and recovery derivative remains in service.) Jordan: 1999–2022 (now stored)
- Used by
- British Army Royal Jordanian Army
- Wars
- Persian Gulf War
- Manufacturer
- Royal Ordnance Factory
- Unit cost
- £1.5 million (1987)
- Produced
- 1983–1990
- Mass
- 62 t (61 long tons; 68 short tons), 70 t (69 long tons; 77 short tons) with additional armour modules
- Length
- 11.56 m (37 ft 11 in) (gun forward)
- Width
- 3.51 m (11 ft 6 in)
- Height
- 2.95 m (9 ft 8 in) (top of commander sight)
- Crew
- 4 (commander, gunner, loader, driver)
- Armour
- Chobham composite ceramic vehicle armour
- Main armament
- Royal Ordnance L11A5 120 mm rifled gun , 64 rounds
- Secondary armament
- 7.62 mm L8A2 , 7.62 mm L37A2 machine guns, 4,000 rounds
- Engine
- Perkins CV12 26 litre diesel , 1,200 hp (895 kW)
- Power weight
- 14.4 kW/tonne
via Wikipedia infobox
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The FV4030/4 Challenger 1 is a British main battle tank (MBT) used by the British Army from 1983 to 2001, when it was superseded by the Challenger 2. The majority of the Challenger 1 fleet was subsequently sold to Jordan where it remained in service with the Royal Jordanian Army until withdrawals were announced in 2018.
Known locally as Al-Hussein, these vehicles received various Jordanian modifications before being replaced by French-made Leclerc tanks from the UAE and ex-Italian Centauro 8x8 wheeled tank destroyers. The Jordanian Challenger 1 fleet had been retired by January 2023.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Challenger 1” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.