Image: A Challenger 2 MBT firing as part of the Royal Welsh Battle Group during Exercise Prairie Lightning. MOD 45158851

Description: A Challenger 2 MBT firing as part of the Royal Welsh Battle Group during Exercise Prairie Lightning. Challenger 2 (CR2) is the British Army's main battle tank. CR2 is based on the Challenger 1 tank, which served with distinction on operations in the Gulf War and the Balkans.

Only five percent of Challenger 2 components are interchangeable with its predecessor, which has had more than 150 major modifications including a completely new turret, L30 CHARM 120mm gun and second generation Chobham armour.

Challenger 2's thermal observation and gunnery displays a magnified image for the commander and gunner. The commander has a gyro-stabilised fully panoramic sight with laser range finder and thermal imager.

The gunner is equipped with a gyro-stabilised primary sight with a laser range finder and coaxially mounted auxiliary sight. The driver's position has an image-intensifying day and night periscope, and the loader has a day sight.

The Battle group is made up of attachments from C Squadron Kings Royal Hussars (KRH), 26 Royal Engineers (26 RA) 8 Armoured Engineer Squadron, Artillery Regiments from 19th, 5th,12th and 39th on Ex Prairie Storm 3 in British Army Training Area Suffield (BATUS), Alberta Canada.

Organization: Army Object Name: BATUS-2014-019-SP1-0665 Category: MOD Supplemental Categories: People, Army Keywords: Army, Training, Exercise, Equipment, Vehicle, Armoured, Explosion, Live firing, Range, Canada, Landscape, BATUS, Field, Prairie Lightning, Tank, Main Battle Tank, MBT, Challenger 2, Fire, Blast Country: Canada
Author: Sgt Mark Webster RLC
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Attribution Required?: Yes