#britain
The Scimitar light tank is one of those machines that never get the limelight. When someone says ‘British tanks’, you instantly think of their famous MBTs like the Centurion or the Chieftain, but they weren’t really used much in actual combat. The small Scimitar, however, has been a British army staple in conflicts all over the world.
In the middle of the 20th century, legendary designs like the Huey, the Cobra and the Mi-24 heralded the start of the new era, the era of helicopters: combat vehicles perfectly suited for the purposes of lightning-fast air support. New helicopter designs were being developed by superpower states as well as many other countries with advanced defence capabilities, like West Germany, France and, naturally, the United Kingdom… which is perfect, because today we’re going to speak specifically about British helicopters.
After WW2, the UK introduced the first ever main battle tank – the legendary Centurion. British engineers managed to combine the best qualities of several classes of tanks: sturdy armour, decent mobility and good firepower, all in one neat package. Thanks to its outstanding performance, the Centurion remained in service all around the globe till the very end of the century. In War Thunder, there are several Centurion variants that can be found in the British, the Swedish and the Israeli tech trees. But what’s their designated combat role?
The Harrier GR.3's most noteworthy deployment was to the Falkland Islands during, and after, the 1982 Falklands War. When the war began on 2nd April 1982 with the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, Britain was forced to rapidly assemble a task force to retake the islands, located some 8,000 miles away from the British mainland. The decommissioning of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes was cancelled and, along with HMS Invincible (itself in the process of being sold to Australia), it was rapidly prepared for deployment. The two aircraft carriers left Portsmouth Naval Base three days later (on 5th April), setting sail to Ascension Island (a small British island in the South Atlantic); which was the designated rendezvous point from where the task force would then sail to the Falklands. The two carriers were carrying Sea King helicopters and Sea Harrier FRS.1 fighters (12 Sea Harriers on Hermes and 8 on Invincible).
The English Electric Lightning was the RAF’s primary front-line interceptor from its introduction in 1959 up until the mid-1970s when it began to be replaced by the Phantom FGR.2. Even so, the Lightning would continue to serve in the interceptor role with the RAF until 1988, leaving RAF service less than two years before the first Phantoms began to be retired from service. Although the Lightning was primarily used to intercept Soviet bombers entering UK airspace, it was also stationed outside the UK, most notably in Germany; the Lightning also saw service at RAF Tengah in Singapore and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Despite serving in the RAF for 29 years, the Lightning never once shot down a hostile aircraft. Officially, the only aircraft ever shot down by a Lightning was a pilotless Harrier; the pilot had ejected, however the Harrier kept flying. It was decided to shoot it down rather than risk it entering Soviet territory.
After a slew of cancelled aircraft development programmes in the 1960s, the UK would, like many other nations, eventually come to operate the F-4 Phantom II. Three special variants of the F-4J would be created, namely the Phantom FG.1 (F-4K), de-navalised Phantom FGR.2 (F-4M), and the Phantom F.3 (F-4J(UK)) which was upgraded to almost-F-4S standard. The Phantoms would remain the UK's primary air defence force from their introduction in 1968 through to the 1990s when they were finally replaced by the Tornado F.3.
