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FV4202 "40-ton Centurion"
FV4202 "40-ton Centurion"
	FV4202 in the Vehicle Conservation Centre at The Tank Museum
Type	technology test bed
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	prototypes, never in service
Wars	Cold War
Production history
No. built	3 prototypes
Specifications
Mass	40.8 long tons
Crew	4 (commander, gunner, loader and driver)
Armour	cast and welded steel
Main; armament	84 mm Ordnance QF 20 pounder model B
Secondary; armament	.30 Browning coaxial machine gun
Engine	V8 Rolls-Royce Meteorite Mk. 202B; 520 bhp (393 kW) at 2,700 rpm
Power/weight	12.4 hp/t
Transmission	Merritt-Brown V52 (5 fwd/1 rev)
Suspension	Horstmann

The Tank Medium No. 2 Experimental Vehicle FV4202 also known as the 40-ton Centurion^[1] was a technology test bed developed by British company Leyland Motors between 1955 and 1956. It was used to develop various concepts later used in the Chieftain main battle tank.

History

The FV4202 was built by Leyland Motors as a research vehicle for the FVRDE to test the conceptual layout of the proposed FV4201 Chieftain main battle tank. Three vehicles were built between 1955 and 1956. The weight of FV4202 was nearer 42 tons^[2] as the cast turrets were usually too heavy due to the fact that the manufacturers of the turret castings were paid by weight rather than per item. One vehicle - an amalgam of two vehicles^[3] - is preserved at the Bovington Tank Museum and another one has been employed as a recovery training aid at SEME Bordon.^[4]

Design

The FV4202 test bed was built from readily available Centurion parts, such as the suspensions, smoke grenade dischargers, armament, hatches, cupola, sights and turret drive. It featured a reclined driver position, allowing the use of a well-sloped glacis plate and the "mantletless" cast turret was built, with an internal gun mantlet.^[5]

Having a shorter hull than the Centurion, the FV4202 only had five road wheels per side. The FV4202 was also lower than the Centurion due to the use of 28 inch-diameter road wheels (31 inch for the Centurion). The tracks were a narrower variant of the ones used on the early Centurion marks.

The FV4202 is powered by the Rolls-Royce Meteorite V8 petrol engine which was, in essence, two-thirds of a V12 Rolls-Royce Meteor. The Meteorite has a 18.01 litre (1,099 cu in) capacity and deliver 520 bhp (393 kW) at 2,700 rpm. The engine was coupled to a Merritt-Brown V52 gearbox originally developed for the Vickers Medium Cruiser Tank Mk. I.

Appearance in video games

The FV4202 appears in World of Tanks, World of Tanks Blitz, World of Tanks: Modern Armor, and War Thunder video games.

References

^ Suttie, William (2015). The Tank Factory. The History Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0750961226.
^ Dunstan, Simon (2003). Chieftain Main Battle Tank 1965–2003. Osprey Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 1841767190.
^ 5 HEAVY Tanks | Tank Chats, retrieved 2023-11-11
^ Dunstan, Simon (1980). Modern Combat Vehicles2: CENTURION. Ian Allan Ltd. p. 99. ISBN 0711010633.
^ Griffin, Rob (3 December 2001). Chieftain. The Crowood Press Ltd. p. 14. ISBN 978-1861264381.