TAMIYA British Army Main Battle Tank Cheiftain Mk.5 - 1:35 Scale Military - ‎T35068

British Army Main Battle Tank Cheiftain Mk.5 - 1:35 Scale Military - TamiyaThe Chieftain Tank is one of the best known of the present generation of battlefield weapons and is one of the most heavily armoured and armed fighting behicles in service anywhere today. It has not been without its detractors or critics however and there has been a running debate by military commentators for several years past on the relative merits of the British Chieftain Tank compared with the main battle tanks of other great military powers- the United States Soviet Russia France and West Germany - whose present equivalent designs afford a fasinating contrast with Chieftain in many key aspects.The Chieftain however was developed as a result of British tank experience in World War II and after and reflects the priorities which British tank men felt to be the most important terms of firepower protection and mobility. British tank development in World War II resulted in the famous Centurion which first appeared in 1945 in the closing weeks of the war. The Centurion together with the Soviet T-34/85 and German Panther represented the culmination of thinking (arising from actual experience) which pointed the need for a universal tank had meanwhile been disturbed by the appearance of the Soviet Josef Stalin II tank in 1945 with a powerful 122mm gun.In the Immediate post-war years it became clear that Soviet Russia and her East European allies (later the Warsaw Pact powers) posed the greatest threat to Western Europe in any future conflict and this led subsequently to the setting up of NATO. If war broke out much of the initial fighting at least would take place in Europe notably in Northern Germany and Britain's armoured divisions were either located in or earmarked for deployement to Germany. The backbone of the Soviet armoured divisions in the 1950's was the formidable JS-III and its T-1- derivative both with the 122mm gun which could out shoot the 20 pdr. (84 mm)gun of the early service versions of Centurion. To strengthen the firepower of the Centurion therefore the British developed an introduced a heavy tank gun the conqueror with a 120mm gun specifically to match the Stalin. The Centurion at this time was classed as a medium gun tank. The Conqueror was unsatisfactory in many ways; it was very heavy noisy relatively slow and made an extra logistic liability for relatively few vehicles. By 1066 the Conqueror was withdrawn from service and an up gunned Centurion with 105 mm gun was in service.More significant still however was that the British by this time had a new tank in production the Chieftain which was to replace both the Centurion and Conqueror with firepower superior to both. Initial studies for a new medium tank gun to replace these two tanks started in the early 1950's and by 1954 some definite proposals had been formulated by the British General Staff. It was planned that the new vehicle should not exceed 50 tons in weight should have a gun of 120mm calibre