Editing Chieftain (section)

==IRL==
[[File:B94b92cf9e4cec89287c6b8fa4121d33.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A Berlin Brigade Chieftain, cleverly blending into the grass.]]
[[File:Chieftain-tank.jpg|300px|right|thumb|"I'm the boogeyman, and I'm coming to getcha!"]]
The Chieftain has served from 1966 to 1995 in the British Army as part of the Royal Armored Corps, with its successor; the Challenger 1 borrowing many of the core concepts laid out by the Chieftain. A revolutionary design for its time, it introduced a reclining position for the driver which not only reduced the hull profile, but also greatly improved protection against enemy fire and is used in virtually all main battle tanks today. Contrary to contemporary designs like the T-62 and Leopard 1 which emphasized mobility and firepower (to a smaller extent), the Chieftain focused on protection and firepower at the expense of mobility leaving it as an unreliable, 60 tonne monster with the largest gun of the day (though it should be noted these engine problems were fixed in mid production models onwards, nearly doubling its BHP output, though it never did quite meet the design specs for the engine). Doctrine of the time relied on Defence in Depth and Dynamic defense, resulting in NATO forces leapfrogging away from the Soviets along a series of defensive positions, giving them ground but making them pay dearly for it. Unlike the Patton and the Leopard 1, the Chieftain was far better suited to a stand-up tank on tank engagement due to its excellent armor. To make up for the chieftain's mobility issues the British saw fit to rethink their defensive fall backs and opt for more aggressive counter attacks. These flank attacks would be mobilized in such a way that NATO assaults would strike at the Soviet's heavily centralized command structures. Essentially cutting off the head of a snake as Soviet doctrine specifically discouraged lower level commanders having independent initiative. (Soviet field commanders of larger forces had a decent bit of leeway in the details of order execution, though the main objective was still dictated by the overall army commander. Soviet command is efficient, if also incredibly tasking on the small cadre of higher level officers of the army itself)

Today, the Chieftain is considered obsolete, (and it had the bad PR after being massacred during operation Nasr in Iran-Iraq war by T-62s) having been replaced by the Challenger but is deployed by some Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan. Its design is still capable of taking on many of the Middle East's older Soviet platforms, though.
As a fun fact: the reason so many British tanks name start with "C" is because their Main Battle Tanks are descended from their WWII era "Cruiser Tanks", which names all start with C as shorthand for "cruiser" (the Churchill was an exception).

{{British Forces in Team Yankee}}
{{Iranian Forces in Team Yankee}}

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