Well that is the official stance from a sensors point of view.
If not superior then certainly on the same level
And that doesnt surprise me as Germany know the export markey for Leopard is so crucial being able to offer Leopard (3) with a 130-140mm gun would be a massive boon
To some degree they wanted to, from the Chieftain replacement trials the general first choice ended up being Leclerc then Leopard 2, we only went for CR2 due to cost, lead time, & grand strategic concerns.
Also don’t forget about MBT-80, that would have been autoloaded, if the programme ever produced anything.
The MBT 80 would have been worse than the CR1 in the end due to not enough money being put in things that need a lot of it but the CR1 and MBT 80 are not bad and probably would have complemented each other well if they had both entered service together
I don’t think its fair to say Britain are slow to adopt new technologies, I think its more accurate to say that Britain generally picks a design philosophy and likes to stick with technologies within that philosophy
Both are true. Britain in WW2 didn’t want to go with the better technologies of the time but still wanted to produce the same quantity as much higher quality tanks, the Navy and Air Force did take a lot of the engineers but from 1941/2 they were starting to get better designs but they didn’t improve on other designs they way they could have
I think we can safely blame the requirements for a multi fuel engine for the ruinously slow speed of the chieftain. Its kind off the only time we wish we didnt stick to specs as we were stuck with leyland trying to make a multi fule engine which ended up increasing the size and weight of the chieftain along side reducing the hp we wanted. Imagine a chieftain that was 40 tons like it was meant to with a similar or more hp engine. Would have been a pretty sexy thing to see.
I just want gaijin to give us the gas turbine prototype but i know thatll never happen as it was never given a turret i dont think.
Although, i do admit. A two stoke super charged engine does sound pretty cool untill you slap on the leyland badge and see the 75% fail statistics.
Always been the problem with us. We sign up, agree to the requirements only to find that no one else has followed it and they’ve gone off and done something else.
Aye was a bit of a shambles, and from that point we then went more against the nato stuff, Only now with CR3 are we actively changing the barrel to be more in line with sharing ammunation with NATO allies
Only because all the places where you produced your own stuff have all been closed due to bankruptcy or never having enough money from a useless government