Editing Challenger 1 (section)

==In Real Life==
[[File:ChallengerIRL.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Scuse me, pardon me, tank coming though]]

Obviously the Challenger is the successor to the Chieftain. 

Team Yankee starts in 1985, and the Challenger 1 was introduced in 1983, and still hardly a mainstay vehicle during the period depicted in TYV2. The turret of the Chally was extra thick: there were no guns at the time that could penetrate it. When introduced Britain was keen to show the new tank off to NATO allies so entered two teams of them into the Canadian Army Trophy, considered the premier inter NATO tank gunnery competition. Due to varying levels of fail, including rushing tanks straight off the production line without the proper gun sights and not giving crews time to train, the shiny new much hyped tank placed last and [[That Guy|Britain decided never to enter the completion again]] while the government cut funding and quickly started looking for an alternative tank, even considering purchasing [[Heresy|German Leopard 2s]]. The tank finally got to prove itself in Operation Granby, the UK operation in the 1991 Gulf War, despite huge doubts around reliability, concerns it was outclassed by Iraqi [[T-72|T-72Ms]], and only 22% of tanks being operational due to a crippling lack of spare parts as well as manufacturing faults.  Despite a bit of teamkilling by the US 1st Infantry, the Challenger performed well, including scoring the longest tank on tank kill at 5,110 metres against an Iraqi tank.  

The Challenger has been succeeded by the Challenger 2. The latter is a complete redesign and only three percent of their parts are interchangeable, despite a similar outward appearance. Both are contemporaries of the [[Leopard 2]] and the [[M1 Abrams]]. Considering how expensive the Challenger 2 is, any replacement during the 2040s would likely to be a foreign platform if common sense was used, but British pride being what it is (and the fact they are a blockadable island), they're likely to give another crack at making a local model. Chally 2 is currently undergoing an extensive Life Extension Program to bring it up to modern specs, this includes swapping the 120mm L30 rifled gun with a 120mm smoothbore Rheinmetall gun (which is also planning for
the Challenger 3 upgrade), the same gun on Leopard 2, for logistical (unify ammunition with other NATO countries) and supply (the factory making HESH for the British Army shut down) reasons.

These tanks are now being sent to Ukraine along with the [[M1 Abrams]] and the [[Leopard 2]]. The Challenger is unique compared to the other two in that some British war analysts note that there have been a shortage of spare parts for Challengers for some time now. So they are concerned that this might be the equivalent of sending a [[Panther]] to the Japanese in 1945. We'll have to see how this develops. 

{{British Forces in Team Yankee}}