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CGS:upgrading challenger and warrior.

BAe publicised their offering (look - it’s BLACK!), whereas Rheinmetall kept theirs low key - although visitors to Blenheim Building may find RAC officers frothing over some Germanic tank porn involving live firing of an entirely new turret and gun combination...

Either way, Main Gate announcement isn’t due until next year, so don’t expect to hear much before then.

I have a feeling some of the naysayers are going to be very disappointed!




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Now, now, show and tell!
 
It seems to be a series of experiments rather than part of the planned life extension.
The RTR will be demonstrating the vehicle during the Army Warfighting Experiment held in December 2018.

(...) Warren-Miller emphasised that this project has been completed completely outside of the Challenger 2 Life Extension Programme which is currently being competed between BAE Systems and Rheinmetall.

‘It comes from the Hobart committee…when everyone in the regiment gets to make recommendations for Challenger 2. And we’ve been given as a squadron the urban environment to adapt our vehicle to,’ Warren-Miller explained.

From what the article said, the emphasis appears to be on improving sensor input while closed down. This includes cameras and thermal imagers with 360 degree coverage.

One interesting bit is the barrel cameras. These are a pair of cameras out near the end of the barrel which look left and right. The tank would poke its barrel out into an intersection to get a view down the street without exposing the rest of itself.

There is also an infantry cooperation aspect to it as well. There will be some means of allowing infantry to access the tank's sensors via an Android tablet or phone.

There is also a "turret mounted mortar". It's not clear how that works or what its intended purpose is.

These are intended to be low cost modifications which can be done quickly.
2nd Lt Nicholas Warren-Miller, 3 Tp Ldr RTR, said that the team has worked over the past two months to add ‘low-level...low-cost modifications that can be done very quickly’ on the tank.

I will speculate and suggest that if adopted, the package would involve installing the wiring, brackets, and other fixed components on the tanks, but leaving the extra cameras (e.g. the barrel cameras) as something to be fitted if and when the operational need justifies it.

Before any of that could happen though, the experimental lash-ups would need to be engineered into something that would last in the field.
 
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