Centurion tank: Encyclopedia - Centurion tank

Centurion tank

The Centurion was the primary British Main Battle Tank of the immediate post-war era, and considered by many to be one of the best British tank designs of all time. Designed during the Second World War it served in Europe, but arrived just too late for combat. It went on to provide excellent service during the Korean War where it outperformed both US and Soviet designs by a wide margin. It would go on to be one of the most widely used tank designs, equipping armies around the world, with small numbers still in service until the 1990s.

Centurion tank - History

In 1943, the Department of Tank Design was asked to produce a new design for a heavy cruiser tank that under the designation A41. After a series of fairly marginal designs in the A series in the past, and after facing the dreaded German 88 mm gun, the War Office asked for a major overhaul, demanding increased durability, reliability, a maximum weight of 40 tons, and the ability to withstand a direct hit from the aforementioned 88 mm gun.

Tank Design responded by extending the long-travel 5-wheel suspension used on the Comet with the addition of a 6th wheel and an extended spacing between the 2nd and 3rd wheels. The Christie suspension with internal vertical spring coils was replaced by a Horstmann suspension with external horizontal springs. The hull was redesigned with welded sloped armour, and featured a partially cast turret mounting the excellent 17 pounder main gun and a 20 mm Polsten cannon. With a Rover-built Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, a version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin, the new design would have excellent performance.

It wasn't long into the program before it became clear that the requirement to withstand the 88 mm would be impossible to fill with the given weight requirements. The original specification had been set so that the A41 could be carried on the existing Mark I and Mark II transport trailers, both of which were limited to a 40 ton load. In one of the few instances on record, the War Ministry decided it would be a better idea to build new trailers than hamper what appeared to be a superb design. Even before prototypes of the original 40 ton design were completed, the design of a heavier version was well underway. The new version carried armour equal to the heaviest infantry tanks, and cross-country performance better than even the early cruisers. The A41 was the first British tank that could "do it all", leading to the new designation, universal tank.

Prototypes of the original 40 ton design, the Centurion Mark I, had 76 mm of armour in the front glacis, thinner than the current infantry tank designs like the Churchill which had 101 mm, but the turret was extremely well armoured at 152 mm. It was, however, extremely mobile and able to easily outperform the Comet in most tests. The uparmoured Centurion Mark II soon arrived, featuring a new 118 mm thick glacis and the sides and rear increased from 38 mm to 51 mm. Only a handful of Mk.I's had been produced when the Mk.II replaced it on the production lines, which were soon expanded to include Leyland, the Royal Ordnance Factories at Leeds and Woolwich, and Vickers at Elswick.

Soon after introduction, Royal Ordnance finished work on the extremely powerful 20 pounder tank gun. By this point the usefulness of the 20 mm had been called into question, so it was replaced with a BESA machine gun in a completely cast turret. The new Centurion Mark III also featured a fully automatic stabilization system for the gun, allowing it to fire accurately while on the move, dramatically improving battlefield performance. The Mk.III was so much more powerful than the Mk.I and Mk.II that the earlier designs were removed from service as soon as new Mk.III's arrived, and converted into the Centurion ARV Mark 1 armoured recovery vehicle for REME use.

The 20 pounder was used only for a short time before Royal Ordnance introduced the now famous 105mm L7 gun. All later variants of the Centurion, from Mark 5/2 on, used the L7. A total of 24 variants and sub-variants were produced.

The Centurion was used as the basis for a range of specialist equipment, including engineering variants with a 165mm demolition gun. It is one of the longest serving designs of all time from the Korean War to the First Gulf war.

Centurion tank - Variants

Centurion tank - UK variants

• FV4007 Centurion Mk 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8/1, 8/2
• FV4011 Centurion Mk 5
• FV4012 Centurion Mk 7/1, 7/2
• FV4015 Centurion Mk 9
• FV4017 Centurion Mk 10
• Conway - prototype with a larger calibre gun.

Centurion tank - UK specialist variants

• FV4003 Centurion Mk 5 AVRE 165 (1963) - AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) vehicle with 165mm demolition gun and a hydraucally-operated dozer blade. Can carry a fascine bundle or a roll of metal Class 60 Trackway. The vehicle was used in the Gulf War (1991).
• Centurion Mk 5 AVRE 105 - Ex-Forward Artillery Observer vehicles converted to AVRE role.
• FV4019 Centurion Mk 5 Bulldozer (1961) - Centurion Mk V with a dozer blade identical to that of the Centurion AVRE. One such tank was usually given to every Centurion-equipped squadron.
• FV4016 Centurion ARK (1963) - Armoured Ramp Carrier. Can span a gap of up to 75 feet, can bear up to 80 tons.
• FV4002 Centurion Mk 5 Bridgelayer (1963) - Mk 5 chassis with a No 5 Tank Bridge. The bridge can be launched in less then two minutes, can span a gap of 45 feet and can bear up to 80 tons.
• FV4013 Centurion ARV Mk 1 (1952) - Based on Mk 1 / Mk 2 hull. Turret replaced by a superstructure housing a winch driven by a 72 hp Bedford QL truck engine. About 180 units were built, some of them were used in the Korean War. After 1959 were used as training vehicles only.
• FV4006 Centurion ARV Mk 2 (1956) - Mk 1 / Mk 2 / Mk 3 hull with turret replaced by a superstructure housing a winch. The winch is powered by an auxiliary engine and is capable of pulling of up to 90 tons using a system of blocks. Armed with single .30 inch machine gun on the commander's cupola.
• FV4018 Centurion BARV (1963) - Beach armoured recovery vehicle. A last Centurion variant to be used by the British Army. As of 2003, one vehicle was still in use by the Royal Marines.

Centurion tank - Non-UK variants

• Olifant - Centurion tanks modernised by South Africa.
  • Semel (1974) / Olifant Mk 1 (1978) - 810 hp fuel-injected petrol engine, three-speed automatic transmission.
  • Olifant Mk 1A (1985) - 750 hp diesel engine, semi-automatic transmission.
  • Olifant Mk 1B (1991) - Torsion bar suspension, redesigned hull floor, additional armor on the glacis plate and turret, V-12 950 hp diesel engine, computerised fire control system, laser rangefinder.
  • Olifant Mk 2 - redesigned turret, new fire control system. Can mount LIW 105 mm GT-8 rifled gun or 120 mm smooth bore gun.
• Shot - An Israeli designation of the Centurion.
  • Shot Meteor - Centurion tanks with the original Meteor engine.
  • Shot Kal Alef/Bet/Gimel/Dalet - Modernised Centurion tanks with a new powerpack (the Continental AVDS-1790-2A diesel engine and the Allison CD850-6 transmission). Subvariants indicate upgrades received by Shot Kal tanks later in their operational life, including a new turret rotating mechanism, a new gun stabilizer, a new fire-control system and preparations for the installation of the Blazer ERA.
• Tempest - Operated by Singapore, modernised by unknown source .
• Nagmashot\Nagmachon\Nakpadon - Israeli heavy armored personnel carriers based on Centurion tank's chassis.
• Puma - Israeli combat engineering vehicle on Centurion tank chassis.
• Stridsvagn 104 - Swedish version fitted with a single diesel engine and an automatic gearbox as well as other modernisations.

Centurion tank - Operators

• United Kingdom
• Australia to 1977
• Israel
• Singapore
• South Africa
• The Netherlands
• Sweden
• Denmark
• Canada
• Switzerland (replaced by Leopard II)
• Jordan
• New Zealand
• Iraq
• India
• Kuwait

Centurion tank - Combat history

• Korean War - United Kingdom
• Suez Crisis- United Kingdom
• Six Day War - Israel
• War of 1965 - India
• Liberation of Bangladesh/War of 1971 - India
• Yom Kippur War - Israel
• Vietnam War - Australia
• Angola Bush War - South Africa
• Gulf War - UK as Centurion AVRE's

See also

Categories: Main battle tanks | Cold War tanks | World War II British tanks | Post war British tanks

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Centurion tank", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki