Universal Tank series of tracked armoured vehicles

UNIVERSAL TANK

SERIES OF TRACKED ARMOURED VEHICLES

Shortly after development began on the A41 Heavy Cruiser aka Centurion, the British drew up a specification for what was known as the ‘Universal’ Tank which was to be one basic hull design being adapted to suit a variety of roles in a complete series of vehicles. The first prototype was the FV201. This vehicle was running in 1948 but development costs were rising and by 1949 it had been found that the Centurion had developed into an extremely versatile vehicle capable of providing most of the Universal tank variants. As a consequence the Centurion became the universal tank and development on the FV200 series was cancelled with the exception of the FV214 which was required to counter the threat posed by the Soviet IS-3. This vehicle was subsequently named 'Conqueror'. To match the firepower of the IS-3 the Conqueror was fitted with an American 120mm gun the ammunition of which came as a separate charge and projectile. This was the first time such ammunition had been used in a british tank, unfortunately the charge came in a large brass case and took up much valuable space. The turret had a better ballistic shape than the Centurion and featured a contra-rotating commanders cupola which was located in its own compartment at the rear of the turret and effectively prevented the commander from seeing what was going on in the main turret. The commander had a cross-cupola rangefinder allowing him to select new targets whilst the gunner was observing elsewhere. The commander could then remotely traverse the turret to whatever his cupola was being used to observe. Despite the size and weight, Conqueror turned out to be more mobile than Centurion across rough ground due to low ground pressure from the very wide tracks, and massive power available from the fuel injected Meteor engine. In all 185 Conquerors were delivered to the British Army and remained in service from 1955 to 1966. They served in Germany with a maximum of nine allocated per regiment being used as long range support for Centurions. Vickers also produced eight FV219 ARV Mk Is and 20 FV222 ARV MKIIs.