No it isn't; only Challenger 2s destroyed were from friendly fire.The Democratic Republic of Davida wrote:
Often when I read or watch video's about how no Challenger 2's were lost in the 2nd Iraq war and like how that is such an amazing accomplishment, it gets up my nose.
First of all, the only tanks it faced were T54's and secondly, the claim is false.
Why the Challenger 2 is extremely formidable.
1. Mobility. It has a superior suspension system to almost all main battle tanks out there today. The hydrogas is many times easier to maintain than torsion bar and the Challenger also has manually adjustable track tension that makes that job much easier. People talk about how good at mobility the Leopard is but for all intents and purposes, it has no clear advantages over Challenger except road speed (again, designing tanks for competitions doesn't work.) In terms of fording depth and trench crossing, they are equals. They can get over obstacles of almost (we're talking a few centimetres) the same size. They have roughly the same ground pressure (around .9kg/cm2.)
Except Challenger has hydrogas suspension, which makes the ride over rough terrain - i.e. terrain you want to take a tank over - much better, more accurate on the move, and easier on the crew. Yea, Challenger can't go 70kph on a road. But it can match the Leopard 2 over rough terrain and shoot more accurately while doing it.
2. Firepower. Oh but Rheinmetall!! The difference here is minimal. There's nothing that will resist a CHARM 3 but not a DM-63 or an M829A3. At the time of development, CHARM 3 was superior to the US/German munition, but it has since been marginally overtaken; the problem is that rifled guns are always something like 10-15% less muzzle velocity than other guns, but it doesn't really matter. That has something of a low effect: KEP construction is more important. Mass is also pretty important. Just remember it was the L11 rifled gun of the Challenger 1 - not even the upgraded L30 in the Challenger 2, but a gun that was almost 30 years old - that holds the record for longest tank to tank kill in world history. At 5,000 metres. Beyond the stated range of KEP munitions deployed on Leopard and Abrams. With HESH: a notoriously inaccurate munition.
3. Armour. Hard to say - it's all classified. The problem with Challenger is its weaker glacis, comparatively. Also, most of its kit is stored internally, which reduces the risk of a fire on the tank exterior. Anyway, it has since been upgraded with ridiculous quantities of armour, so there's almost no contest here, it's one of the best protected tanks in the world.
4. Fire control. Challenger doesn't have the bad fire control everyone says it does. It has a truly hunter killer capacity, the only problem was that the TOGS kennel was on top of the gun which made it hard to see after firing. Nonetheless, it doesn't stop this Challenger from making 8 hits in 60 seconds on a range. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpJdkoLw5B0&t=5m15s
I may have forgotten some things. It also has a kettle and a toilet
