Challenger 2 MBT - Technical data and Discussion (Part 1)

@Gunjob @Legwolf I did a quick experiment with some CAD software and the side skirts come out at about 2,700 kg each (assuming they are made of 40 mm thick steel):

1 Like

Is this the same plate with half and half on the front and back?

They have to be steel wherever gaijin got the aluminium source from is made up 😂

If I switch to Aluminium 7017 Armour Plate then the mass drops to 960 kg each:

It assumes the plate I drew is one solid piece of 40 mm thick metal

Then it will lose ~300 kg from the steel if we reduce the engine plate to ~20mm

I’ve made a few corrections based on feedback:

CHALLENGER 2 PLATE APPROXIMATION

Specifications
Challenger 2 base model = 62.5t
Challenger 2 TES/OES = 74.8t
TES addon = 74.8 - 62.5 = 12.3t

Challenger 2 dimensions:
Length = 8.3 Meters
Width = 3.5 Meters
Height = 2.5 Meters

STEEL BASE PLATE THEORY:

Base plate is roughly 3/4 the height of the hull.
Shaving off 0.5 meters for the turret, and reducing to 3/4s, we are given a height of 1.5 meters in height for the plate.
The length of the plate can be measured as roughly 3/4 the length of the vehicle. 6.2 meters.
The thickness of the plate is known to be 40mm

Our Steel plate is 6.2 by 1.5 by 0.04
Using the formula Weight = Area × Thickness × Density
Area = Length × Height
Area = 6.2m × 1.5m
Area = 9.3m2
We can now use the Formula to solve for mass
Weight = 9.3m2 × 0.04m × 7,850kg/m3 where 7,850kg/m3 is equal to the density of steel.
Weight = 2,952kg or 2.94 tonnes.
Given the shape of the TES’ plate is not rectangular, we can shave a further 5% off of the shave to account for areas where material should not exist.
5% of 2.94 = 0.14
Giving each plate a final value of 2.8t
There are two plates per side. 2.8 x 2 = 5.6t total for steel side plates.

Mine Protection:
image
It can be seen taking up roughly 2/3 of the tanks total width.
2/3 of 3.5 is 2.33
It is seen running along roughly the same length as the base plate, therefore I will assign it the same length of 6.3
Our mine protection therefore is 6.3m long, 2.33m wide and 20mm thick.
Plugging this into our aforementioned formula we get:
Area =6.2×2.33
Area =14.486 m2
Weight = 14.486m2 × 0.02m × 7,850kg/m3
Weight = 2,278.46 kg or 2.27t for the mine protection baseplate.

Next, we need to account for the two 40mm plates at the bottom of our plate.
The plates height are roughly 1/4 the height of the baseplate
image
1/4 of 1.5 is 0.375 for the height.
The length is the same as the base plate, 6.3 m
The width is 40mm per plate, of which there are two.
Same formula as before…
Area = 6.3m × 0.375m
Area = 2.3625m2

Weight = 2.3625m2×0.04m×7,850kg/m3
Weight = 742.6 kg or 0.74 tons
This is just for one plate however, and there are a total of four.
0.74 x 4 is 2.96.

We can reduce roughly 5% again, as the bottom plate slopes towards the front, saving us material.
20% (5% off each block) of 2.96 is
2.96 - 0.59 is 2.36t for the entire array.

In total, with the base plate, double stack side armor and mine protection, the total weight of the package is:
2.36 + 2.27 + 5.6
= 10.23
This leaves you with 2.07T of weight to be added in the form of the LFP addon armor, the cage armor, radio equipment, ASPRO-HMT and ECM.

ALUMINIUM THEORY
To streamline this segment I will be using the exact same dimensions and formulae as previously mentioned but replacing the density of steel, with that of Aluminium alloy 7075 with 2810kg/cm^3

Side plates: 1045.32kg or 1.04t x 2 = 2.08t
Mine protection remains unchanged, as does the 40mm steel plates at the bottom.
This gives us 2.08 + 2.36 + 2.27 which is 6.71t total.
This leaves you with over 6 tons of equipment to account for. Far too large a number to be made up by the LFP addon, Slat armor, Radio Equipment, ECM and ASPRO-HMT.

In conclusion, the more realistic material determined by my rough estimates of material values and dimensions is that of steel, as it more closely matches with the expected weight increase TES provides, while the alloy leaves over 5t unaccounted for.

18 Likes

Merry Christmas lol

Top work, ill pass this along.

12 Likes

My pleasure :)

I would wager my margin of error here is something in the realm of within .5t of the figure, which makes me pretty confident it’s steel.

So you used tonnes, yet here

short tons?
and you carry them

Shouldnt it be kept in tonnes?

Oh my mistake
Give me two secs

1 Like

And with that it will be close to flame cad experiment

1 Like

Hmm 1.25t left for all the other add ons seems unrealistic as the toe plate on CR1 itself weighed over 1t

tonne and short tones mixout

Even then that belly plate ain’t 2/3 in width it’s about 1/2

Yea @Legwolf that might also be a thing to look at

Now that seems better

1 Like

Apologies for the mistake guys. The values have been corrected.
Damn conversions…

Final values are 2.07t of weight for Steel
6.71t for Alloy
@Gunjob

Can you ensure the post is corrected please.

1 Like