Chieftain Mk5 MBT

The Chieftain MBT was developed in the late 1950's and the first production vehicles entering service in the early 1970's until product completion in 1978. The Chieftain is a convensional tank with driver in the front and the engine at the rear of the vehicle. The commander and the gunner both are seated on the right of the turret with the loader on the left.

The Chieftains main armament is the 120mm L11 series rifled gun firing a mix of ammunition such as APFSDS, APDS, HESH and smoke rounds. The first models of the Chieftain tank used a machine gun to range on to the target. The 12.7mm ranging machine gun was linked to the main gun and would fire in bursts of 3 tracer rounds until a hit was achieved giving the main armament a high first hit probability. Later versions replaced the ranging machine gun with a Tank Laser Sight (TLS) and a computerised fire control system and main gun stabilisation.

The Chieftain tank was phased out of British Army service in 1996, although, the ARV, ARRV, AVLB and AVRE versions still remain in service today and the in to the future deployment. The Chieftain has been widely expoted and is in service with Iran, Iraq with Jordan adoping the ARV versions.

There were a number of varients produced and these include:

1. Mk 3/3P (Iranian version)
2. Mk 5/5P (Iranian Version)
3. Chieftain ARV - Armoured Recovery Vehicle
4. Chieftain AVLB - Armoured Vehicle Launcher Bridge
5. Chieftain AVRE - Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers
6. Chieftain ARRV - Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle

Vehicle Specifications