Challenger 2 TES
Contents
Description
The Challenger 2 TES (2008) is a rank VII British medium tank with a battle rating of 11.0. It was introduced in Update "Winged Lions".
General info
Survivability and armour
The Challenger 2 TES has the armour that would be expected of the name (TES - Theatre Entry Standard). The tank has been updated to meet the modern theatres of war, including streetfighting, more effective chemical munitions and kinetic weapons. The ERA on the sides displays this exact line of thought. The tank now boasts some of the most effective ERA in the game, beating the T-90A's frontal chemical protection by over 500mm.
Equipped with the iconic jammer plate mounted to the roof, this tank will be easy to spot and identify, so one should take care to cover their weak points with extra care, as many will know where the weaknesses are, and feel pressured to shoot them due to the increased armor elsewhere. The tank retains the same weakspots; the gun mantlet, driver's port and the lower frontal plate, though it is less vulnerable to chemical munitions now. The gun breech will most likely block any penetrating round spalling, allowing TES players to retreat and repair their breech, should they be far enough away from danger.
When opposing enemy tanks, commanders should attempt to angle their tank slightly, as the composite side screens can take most of the brunt of lower power kinetic rounds (M111, DM33) on an angle. Chemical rounds will also fail to penetrate when hitting any ERA on the side. Angling has the added bonus of making the driver's port less effective as a means of knocking out the tank's crew.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 38-50 mm (56-83°) Upper Plate
70 mm (31-34°) Lower Glacis 60 mm (0-80°) Driver's Port |
25 mm Top (70°)
25 mm Middle (0°) 38 mm Bottom (0°) |
25 mm (32°) | 10-20 mm |
| Turret | 38 - 50 mm (56-82°) Turret Front 30 mm (3-82°) Gun Mantlet |
20-25 mm (8-10°) | 20 mm (18°) | 10-38 mm |
| Cupola | 8 mm (3-78°) | 8 mm (9-60°) | 8 mm (1-80°) | 44-60 mm |
| Composite Armour | Front | Sides | ||
| Hull | Upper Kinetic: 420-700 mm Chemical: 800-1100 mm Lower Kinetic: 100-270 mm Chemical: 130-800 mm |
Ext. Composite Screen with ERA: Kinetic: 88 mm Chemical: 1900 mm | ||
| Turret | Turret Cheeks Kinetic: 440-720 mm Chemical: 780-1000 mm |
Internal Composite Kinetic: 190-740 mm Chemical: 300-1000 mm Ext. ERA: Kinetic: 30 mm Chemical: 222 mm | ||
Notes:
- Upper Frontal Plate has additional 6.35mm external structural steel plate.
- Lower Frontal Plate has additional Composite with NERA Elements, which is very effective against chemical munitions.
Mobility
Write about the mobility of the ground vehicle. Estimate the specific power and manoeuvrability, as well as the maximum speed forwards and backwards.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 74.8 | 1076 | 14.39 | __.__ | |||
| Realistic | 1886 | 25.21 | __.__ | ||||
Modifications and economy
Armaments
Main armament
| 120 mm L30A1 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 50 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | Two-plane | 29.5 | 40.8 | 49.6 | 54.8 | 58.4 | 6.50 | 5.75 | 5.30 | 5.00 |
| Realistic | 18.4 | 21.7 | 26.4 | 29.1 | 31.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| Shot L23A1 | APFSDS | 396 | 394 | 387 | 376 | 367 | 357 |
| Shell L31A7 | HESH | 152 | 152 | 152 | 152 | 152 | 152 |
| L26 | APFSDS | 493 | 491 | 487 | 481 | 474 | 468 |
| L27A1 | APFSDS | 564 | 562 | 557 | 551 | 545 | 538 |
| Shell details | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | |||||||
| Shot L23A1 | APFSDS | 1,535 | 3.89 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
| Shell L31A7 | HESH | 670 | 17.1 | 0.1 | 4 | 6,560 | 73° | 77° | 80° |
| L26 | APFSDS | 1,650 | 4.1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
| L27A1 | APFSDS | 1,650 | 4.1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| L34 | 670 | 17.1 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| __ | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ (+__) | __ |
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm L37A2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 1,700 (100) | 650 | -10°/+50° | ±180° |
| 7.62 mm L94A1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 2,300 (2,000) | 600 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in a bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".
Pros:
- Impressive chemical protection on the front and sides.
- Maintains the kinetic protection from previous variants, with improvements in places.
- Very accurate L30A1 120 mm gun.
- Fast reload.
Cons:
- Maintains the same weakspots from previous variants.
- No CITV (Commander Independent Thermal Viewer).
- L27A1 has low penetration compared to other top rank NATO ammunition.
History
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
