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The British Centurion Tank Development
The original design request made by the British War office In 1943 to the Department of Tank Design, was for a tank capable of with standing an 88mm round as used by the German forces at the time and had to weight 40-ton’s as the transports used to deploy British tanks could not exceed this weight. The original Mk I was unable to with stand an 88mm round whilst below 40-tons, so the War Ministry on seeing that the Centurion was a superb design decided to replace its transports with heavier weight barring ones.
Known as the A41, the 1st prototype was completed in 1944 and 5 in total by 1945 which were sent to Germany but were to late in WW2 to see any combat.
The British Centurion Tank Description
It proved to be exceptionally up-gradable and through the years saw up-grades in fuel capacity and many in the armour & firepower of the vehicle and the Meteor V-12 petrol engine proved capable with the added weight.
The tank is run by a 4 man crew, the driver sits at the front of the all-welded steel hull on the right. The turret houses a number of external stowage boxes with re-supply hatch’s. The crew layout is standard with the commander & gunner on the right and the loader on the left.
the commander and gunner have a number of sights and periscopes with an effective range of 8000m (1.86miles). During the 1960’s, many of these as well as search lights were up-graded with Infa-Red by the British Army.
The power pack is at the rear of the vehicle behind a fire proof bulkhead.
The suspension is made up of 3 units along each side of road wheels (6 per-side) and protected by armour skirts, the first and last are fitted with shock absorbers.
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The vehicle never had an NBC system fitted nor did it have amphibious capabilities, but a deep fording kit was developed as was a frontal dozer blade so it could dig in to firing positions. It’s only weakness was its operational range, which the Mk5 tried to solve by providing a small trailer of fuel.
The British Centurion Tank Variants
| Mark 1 | Armed with 17 pounder 76mm main gun |
| Mark 2 | Armed with 17 pounder 76mm main gun |
| Mark 3 | Armed with 20 pounder 83.8mm main gun |
| Mark 4 | Close support model Armed with 95mm howitzer, never entered production |
| Mark 5 | Armed with 20 pounder 83.8mm main gun coaxial Browning MG fitted and commander’s cupola, stowage bin on glacis |
| Mark 5/1 | Up-armoured (glacis) |
| Mark 5/2 | Armed with 105mm main gun |
| Mark 6 AKA 6/1 | A Mark 5 with 105mm main gun & increased fuel capacity at rear, IR & night vision equipment & added stowage basket at the rear of the turret |
| Mark 6/2 | 12.7mm ranging MG |
| Mark 7 | AKA FV4007, designed by Leyland it was armed with 83.8mm main gun with fume extractor & carried 61 rounds |
| Mark 7/1 | Up-armoured Mk7 AKA FV4012 |
| Mark 7/2 | Mk7 with 105mm main gun |
| Mark 8 | Resilient main gun mantel, canvas cover removed, commanders cupola is self rotating and new twin hatch |
| Mark 8/1 | Mk 8 up-armoured |
| Mark 8/2 | Mk 8 with 105mm main gun |
| Mark 9 | Mk 7 up-armoured with 105mm main gun AKA FV4015 |
| Mark 9/1 | Mk 9 with IR night vision equipment & stowage basket at the rear of the turret |
| Mark 9/2 | Mk 9 with 12.7mm ranging MG |
| Mark 10 | Mk 8 up-armoured with 105mm main gun, increased storage to 70rounds AKA the FV4017. Added IR equipment, stowage basket rear of turret, re-designated Mk 10/1 |
| Mark 10/2 | Mk 10 with 12.7mm ranging MG |
| Mark 11 | Mk 6 with 12.7mm ranging MG IR equipment, stowage basket rear of turret |
| Mark 12 | Mk 9 with 12.7mm ranging MG IR equipment, stowage basket rear of turret |
| Mark 13 | Mk 10 with 12.7mm ranging MG IR equipment |
Production of the Centurion ended in 1962, by which stage 4423 had been manufactured by ROF Leeds, Vickers and Leylands, of which 2500 were exported. How ever most were replaced by former operators with German Leopard 1’s.
The British Centurion Tank Operators
Operators have included: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, India, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, & Switzerland.
The British Centurion Tank Combat History
It was used by the British in the Gulf War (as AVRE), Falklands War (1 Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle – Centurion hull) & Northern Island. By South Africa in the Angolan Civil War and Australia in the Vietnam War. Israel had used their upgraded Sho’t in several conflicts (see link bekow).
The British Centurion Tank operator vehicles…
Sho’tIDF Upgrade Click here to view vehicle Former IDF Service |
OlifantSouth Africa Upgrade Click here to view vehicle In SAAC Service |
Strv 81Swedish Upgrade Click here to view vehicle Former Swedish Service |
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