Vickers MBT


The Vickers MBT is a series of main battle tanks developed as a private venture by British company Vickers-Armstrongs for export. The design makes use of proven components, such as the L7 gun of the Centurion, the Leyland L60 multi-fuel engine, the transmission and fire control system of the Chieftain. Many tanks were also built by India under licence as the Vijayanta.

Design and development

The Vickers MBT followed on from a 24-tonne 20-pdr gunned tank design intended for export. This would be as well equipped as a Centurion but substantially cheaper and with Vickers Vigilant missiles as effective. However, with the appearance of the 105 mm L7 gun into the British, US and German tank designs, this light tank would have been less powerful while too large for the reconnaissance role, and so a new design was required. With armour twice that of the light tank design, it would still be 12 tonnes lighter than Centurion and hence more mobile. The design would use the new engine and transmission of the Chieftain tank then being developed. The development coincided with an agreement with India in 1961 to produce a tank design and help set up a factory there to produce it.
The Vickers MBT Mk 1 was designed to be a simple, low-cost, but effective tank. The first prototype was completed in 1963. In 1964, one of the prototypes was sent to India.
The Vickers was made of welded rolled homogeneous armour plates. It weighed 38,600 kg, carried a 105 mm gun with 44 rounds and had a top speed of 48 km/h. 70 tanks were sold to Kuwait and many of a modified version were made in India where the tank was called Vijayanta.

Versions

Vickers Main Battle Tank Mark 2

The 1968 proposal for a vehicle specification that differed from the Mark 1 in the following respects:
  1. Transistorised gun-control equipment.
  2. New turret of cast front and mantlet-less design, with new gun mounting.
  3. Improved frontal aspect to the hull and turret.
  4. Improved track, suitable for continuously.
  5. Reduced ground pressure due to reduced total weight, increased track width and increased track on the ground by moving two rear wheel stations backwards.
  6. Engine delivering full horsepower as for the Chieftain through redesigned final drives to give 56+ km/h.
  7. Improved commander cupola to take the Chieftain vision devices.
  8. Provision for fitting four Swingfire wire-controlled anti-tank missiles (intended as a response to weapons of greater range, such as the 120 mm L11 tank gun.
The Mark 2 did not proceed beyond a mock-up although a Vickers Mark 1 MBT with four Swingfire missiles, two mounted either side of the turret towards the rear, was shown at Farnborough. A note in Vickers's files dated from 20 November 1970 explains the probable reason:
"Guided missiles have an inherent disadvantage in that is almost impossible to fire them from under armour since the rocket motor efflux presents a serious problem. Generally speaking, the best that can be achieved is to put the crew under armour and mount the missiles externally. This presents reloading problems and leaves the missiles vulnerable to small arms and mortar fire."
In any case, only four spare missile rounds could be carried.

Vickers Main Battle Tank Mark 3

The Mk. 3 retains most of the proposed features of the Mk. 2. Others were the provision for infrared/white-light searchlights and the abandonment of flotation gear. A laser rangefinder of the type being fitted to the Chieftain was also proposed since the range of the L7A1 105 mm gun was well beyond that of the 12.7 mm ranging machine gun fitted. Some thought was also given the idea of mounting the heavier British L11 120 mm gun on the Vickers tank, but this was abandoned because the 105 mm L7-series rifled gun was becoming the NATO standard, 120 mm ammunition was more expensive than 105 mm and was used only by the British Army in Europe, and the weight advantage of the Vicker's tank would be reduced.
The Mark 3 differs from the Mark 1 mainly in having a turret with well-shaped cast front welded to a fabricated armour plate body. It also has a cast gun mantlet which is better shaped from the point of view of its resistance to armour-piercing projectiles than the flat mantlet of the Mark. 1.
A distinctive additional feature of the Mk. 3 turret is the fitting of a commander's contra-rotating cupola. This was not used on the Mk. 1 supplied to India in order to keep the overall height of the tank within a fixed limit. The cupola of the Mk. 3 has 360 degree hand traverse and is fitted with one sight periscope with a magnification of ×1 and ×10, and six periscopes for all-around observation. The first production order for Mk. 3 tanks was placed in 1977 by the Government of Kenya.
In addition the Mark 3 embodied various other improvements, such as an increase in the depression of its gun from -7° to -10° below the horizontal and an increase in the ammunition stowage to 50 rounds.
The Mk. 3s supplied to Kenya between 1977 and 1981 also have a Pilkington PE Condor combined day/night sight. The gunner has a Barr & Stroud TLS with a magnification of ×1 and ×10, which is also provided with a ballistic graticule.
Mk. 3s for the Nigerian Army, for which production began in 1981, are also fitted with a Vickers Instruments L23 gunner's laser rangefinder incorporating a Simrad LV352 laser.
Specifications
Also known as Vickers AVLB, it was based on the Mk. 3 and is equipped with a hydraulically operated launch and recovery system for an MLC 60/70 scissors bridge with a length of 13.41 m.

Mark 3 ARV/ARRV

It was based on the Mk. 3 and is equipped with a main winch, pulleys, cables and towbars. Some vehicles have a crane capable of lifting 4,000 kg.

Mark 3(I)

In 1985, design work began on a Mk. 3 tank. The improvements over the previous Mk. 3 specification comprise the following:
The Vickers Mark 3 was unveiled at the 1986 British Army Equipment Exhibition.
Specifications
The Mk. 3 is dated back to the early 1990s. It features an improved protection against shaped charge warheads by adding a Royal Ordnance ROMOR-A explosive reactive armour or the or Vickers Defence Systems VARMA Series 2 explosive reactive on the forward portions of the hull and turret. In addition, the Mark 3M gunner's station features a day/thermal sight, with a remote display for the commander.
In April 1997, Vickers selected the Officine Galileo modular day/night panoramic periscopic for installation on the Mark 3M. A Global Positioning System receiver and the Avimo LIRD-2 laser warning system are also part of the Mark 3 package.

Vickers Main Battle Tank Mark 4 (Valiant)

In 1977, Vickers produced a design for a vehicle that incorporated Chobham composite armour protection within a battle weight of 43 tonnes. This first prototype, designated the Vickers Main Battle Tank Mark 4.

Vickers Main Battle Tank Mark 7

The Vickers Mk 7 consisted of a third generation Vickers Valiant turret mounted on a Krauss-Maffei-supplied chassis that in the prototype is essentially that of the Leopard 2 MBT.
The tank had a Marconi digital fire control system, an SFIM panoramic sight and a Philips 2nd Gen thermal imager.
The Mark 7 has three features that reduces the likelihood of its detection by night sights and other heat-sensing devices. These are its coat of infra-red reflective paint; the mixing of the hot exhaust gases with the cooling air before discharge; and a new design of thermal sleeve.

Vickers Anti-aircraft Tank

Equipped with the Marksman turret, as well as a self-propelled 155mm howitzer with the GBT 155 turret. The GBT 155 was unveiled in 1982 and was armed with the same 155mm ordnance as the AS-90. It was designed primarily for existing tank chassis.

Operators

Current operators