CONQUEROR Mk.1 & Mk.2

In 1946, after some failures in the design of a new heavy tank model that could deal with guarantees against the Soviet IS-3 heavy tank, the British Army launched the development of a project designed as “FV.200 Universal Concept”. This project consisted of building a family of vehicles that covered the entire range used in the armoured forces, from APCs to bridgelayers. Finally, only two versions of the FV.214 Conqueror heavy tank, (Mk.1 and Mk.2), and the FV.219 and FV.222 armoured recovery vehicles were built. The Conqueror Mk.1 appeared in 1957 with a maximum armour of 178mm in thickness and armed with a powerful 120mm gun, but with an engine of only 810 hp, which was very unsuitable and underpowered for its weight of 65 tons. After the manufacture of only 20 units, a number of modifications were included, that resulted in the Conqueror Mk.2 variant, although the tank’s performance was not significantly improved. The lack of mobility and the constant set-up  and maintenance problems, led to its early withdrawal in 1966, when they were replaced by the Centurion main battles tanks armed with a 105mm gun.

CONQUEROR Mk.1 & Mk.2 gallery and more info