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
Just found this on youtube. Thought might be worth sharing:
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Autoloaders were not something the UK was really interested in. With a human loader always being favoured.
Britain are slow to adpot new technolgies and the pros for a human loader outweighed the cons.
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
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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
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The Leclerc was not seen as a viable contender because the KE protection of the turret armour was deemed to be completely inadequate:
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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.
They sound scottish
but nice video man
Might be. It was something that surprised me when I watched it but it is cool to watch
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Oh they are. the lads firing htat chieftain definitely are scots xD
shows how potent the dorchester / chobham is doessnt it
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I also love watching it puff up when it has been hit, like plastic and it is very satisfying
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.
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I wonder if they will be fixing the mantlet position anytime soon?
Whats it been 1.5 years almost?
It wouldn’t have taken much effort to look at a couple of photos of CH2 to make sure it’s correct before pushing the rework to live.
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
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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
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You can see it now, we will complete the challenger 3 upgrade and everyone will switch out to 130mm guns…
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N well still be better, plucky brits n all that bollocks.
How’d you mean , last I chekced the royal ordenance is still open.I mean technically isnt royal ordenance since 2004 but the same thing exists in BEA
No but there is almost no more production of powder bags anymore and no more production of AP rounds and (iirc) no more HESH