However with the Iranian Revolution the order for the Shir 2 was cancelled, but with a number of modifications it was accepted in to service with the British Army as the Challenger in 1983 as a stop gap. The Royal Ordnance Factory in Leeds had started production of an improved Chieftain design for Iran in the early 80’s called the Shir 2, which was capable of being equipped with the new composite armour, which was now called Chobham armour. However the British Army could ill afford to wait until the early 90’s, which was the earliest predicted time scale it would take for the establishment to complete the development process for a replacement for the Chieftain. Only 2 ATR was built, but as no final designs were completed the project ended. The UK started a new project called the MBT80, which focused on the development of the firepower of the Chieftain replacement since FV4211 had rectified the issues with adding Chobham armour to a new tank. The project did not see any working prototypes like the FV4211 had, but the FMBT project was cancelled. The UK entered into a new joint project with Germany called FMBT. The British FV4211 aka the aluminium Chieftain was the first to be fitted with Chobham aka Burlington, but the project was cancelled. However a replacement capable of being fitted with Chobham composite armour was sought after nearly 20 years service, called the Chieftain replacement program. It was the first tank to mount a 120mm main gun, which was also a calibre Length 55, something many countries still aspire too. The British Chieftain had served the Royal Armoured Corps as the most advanced tank of its day. View Our new and expanded, The British Challenger 2 Tank pages 0n
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