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FV 4202

The FV4202 is a British post-war medium tank project that was created on the basis of another medium machine, the Centurion. Work on the creation of this tank were conducted in the UK from 1956 to 1959. This combat vehicle was never produced in series, and the technical solutions and innovations that were embodied in the FV4202 tank became the basis for the main FV4201 Chieftain combat tank. Today, a preserved copy of the experimental tank FV4202 is stored in the collection of the tank museum in Bovington.

Speaking of British tank building, it should be noted that during the Second World War it was far from leading roles. The first tank, which could be called a breakthrough, was the Cromwell, designed by the British in 1941-1943. This tank was armed with 57-mm or 75-mm guns, and thanks to the installation on it of an aircraft engine, the Meteor could become the most high-speed British tank of that time period. "Cromwell" could not be called a bad tank, but in 1943 on the battlefield, he had to compete with the German "Tigers" and "Panthers". Against these formidable "predators", the 75-mm cannon "Cromwell" was no longer enough, and a more powerful weapon could not be installed on it because of the small size of the tower and the tower shoulder strap.


A more powerful weapon was installed only on the Cromwell successor, the Comet cruiser tank. “Komet”, thanks to a larger-width tower that had a well-developed feeding niche, allowed the designers to install a new 77-mm cannon. An armor-piercing projectile fired from this weapon accelerated to 787 m / s. One can rightly say that it was the most powerful cruising tank of Great Britain during the Second World War. In fact, this combat vehicle was inferior to the German "Panther", but significantly surpassed the most massive German tank - Pz IV.

In this case, the cruising tank, which was called the "English Panther", entered service with the British army after the end of the war in Europe. This tank became Centurion. This tank had a welded hull with rational angles of armor. At the same time, the combat vehicle was armed with a 17- or 20-pound cannon and remained in service with the British army until the 1970s. Later versions of this tank (from about the mid-1950s) were armed with a rifled 105-mm L7 cannon.