I would argue that the pre-production Challenger 3 would be better as it has much better armour than any Challenger 2/3TD we have ingame
Basically what dotSHINI said.
The 130mm test bed at the end of the day is essentially a Challenger 3TD with a bigger gun and the Chally 3TD is a very bare bones test bed vehicle
Just look at how thick the turret and UFP armour is on the Challenger 3 prototype (2024)
Yes, that will be 4mm structural steel + air. ~ Gaijin, probably.
I can HOPE it dosen’t get the Shir 2 treatment
I mean currently none of the challys have any real armour outside of the turret cheeks, and no one EVER shoots there, its all well and good discussing the CR3 but we do not have that outside of the LEP prototype and its bimonthly nerfs, in the CURRENT tech tree it would be the best
If it is added right now, yes it could be better,
But it is heavier then a standard challenger with the heavier cannon, munition and so on.
It is meaned as an practical demonstrator of the 130mm cannon that it works on a tank platform to advertise it to germany in the current race for the mgcs vs the french ascalon.
For those reasons Rheinmetall only replaced turret parts for possible heavier equipment.
No work on the engine etc was done to possibly counteract that since it was not required for this demonstrator
