The Ukrainian Tank that Scored a Direct Hit from an Impossible Distance 

As a Iraq war veteran who did 3 tours. And was a Bradley mechanic and recovery operator. I can tell you first hand that the turret is far from a tanks weakest point. The bottoms of tanks and armored vehicles can often be extremely thin and easily penetrated by mines and IED's. One thing the American media never showed the public is the boneyards that were in Kuwait. These boneyards held ALLOT of tanks and armored vehicles and other vehicles that were destroyed by IEDs and mines. The Hummv Boneyard was by far the biggest and saddest to see. Just god awful. I recovered personally dozens of vehicles struck by IEDs and mines. And seen a Bradley strike an AT mine, as it was escorting my M88a1 at night to another recovery operation. Ukraine is dealing with hell on earth right now for their armored vehicles. I wish them nothing but success.

We saw the Challengers take hits and walk over mines that wrecked our Abrahams, the UK really has impressive tanks and crews

There will never be a tank that can’t be destroyed. The very notion is ridiculous. The crew surviving is a good result

Many Ukrainians I know have expressed gratitude towards Britain, especially BoJo and Sunak. As a Brit who spent much of 2014 working in media in Donets’k, I feel ashamed by the betrayal that led to Russia claiming a large amount of the Donbas region and Crimea. On the 5th of December 1994, the British and US governments signed an agreement with Ukraine and Russia that if either side invaded Ukrainian territory, the other side would protect Ukraine’s sovereignty. This agreement came with the caveat that Ukraine would hand all its nuclear arsenal back to Russia, a promise they kept. 19.5 years later and we see Russia invade as they have done with Chechnya and Georgia, and we betrayed that promise, telling Ukraine to cede that territory to Russia without coming to their aid at all. 8 years later the full invasion of Ukraine begins and once again we refuse to keep the promise, merely sending soon to be and already decommissioned weapons, whilst at the same time forcing Ukraine into agreeing that they won’t fire into Russia, including Crimea. First the promise made is broken, then we hamstrung them with limits. I know that there are people who will claim that NATO had said ‘not one inch’ further east, but that’s simply not a part of the agreement. Gorbachev himself debunked that claim and he should know given that he signed the deal at the fall of Soviet control of Eastern Europe. The issue about not keeping that promise to Ukraine is far reaching. If the UK and US try to restrict any other country from having nuclear weapons with a promise to fight for them, any country will see this and think they’ll be betrayed and so have a better chance with nuclear weapons and other WMD’s. I know I am slightly biased in my opinion of this due to things I witnessed in 2014 and due to friendships formed with several Ukrainians, but I was raised to always keep my word and to honour all promises made. This is why I am ashamed of the lack of action on the part of the British and American governments.

I do wish you producers of the "Dark XXX" video series used researchers and script writers with some technical knowledge on the subject of the video. After all, ANY tank can be disabled by a mine. Once disabled, all tanks are sitting ducks. So losing that tank is no mystery, any more than losing the Leopards and Bradley's that were also in that same battle. The important part is what you left out. Was the crew protected and were they able to evacuate the tank? And this is where western amour excels. Machinery can be replaced. Experienced tank crews are what makes the difference. They cannot be replaced easily, if at all. The Challenger 2 is a good tank. It can take on and defeat it's ex-soviet opponents at ranges that the opposing tanks cannot even respond at. But without a crew, it's just 70 tons of expensive parts.

And yet the Challenger 2 record still stands to this day as not one has never been lost to another enemy Tank.

Given that the Ukrainians were not permitted the theatre armour packs, the mostly naked challenger did well by preserving its crew. As for the T90m commander maybe the Russian armour would like to attempt mobile warfare instead of hiding with the rest of the Russian forces. Should the T90m meet any of the 3 western mbts it will end quickly and badly for the Russians.

Challenger was never "designed with a thin lower plate because it was designed to fight hull down" Challenger was designed with modular armour, all our modern AFVs are. If memory serves correct: The Chobham armour system consists of two types of armour. Burlington: Permanent and Optional NERA blocks mounted onto the base challenger chassis. Dorchester: Optional ERA blocks mounted on top of the Burlington blocks. What you see in Ukraine is Challenger in its unarmoured "gun tank" configuration. No optional Dorchester or Burlington blocks, lightest configuration and (supposed to) only be used on the training range. What you see in the clips from Basra is TES (Theatre Entry Standard) All latest optional Dorchester and Burlington blocks + Thermal camo + anti IED EW "tea table" But we don't have many, so we didn't give them any. Also it adds 10 tons, combat load adds another 10, it's just too heavy in that config. And it still wouldn't stop mines, drones and top attack munitions. So, yeah, I guess that's why they didn't have any. They should have given them all the side and LFP Dorchester blocks though 😡

No tank is invulnerable

The T90 tanker maybe hasn't seen the footage of one of his tanks getting a shoeing by a pair of Bradleys. Ok, the crew survived, but the tank was disabled, by a pair of IFVs. They come head-to-head with a Chally and the outcome may not even be that favourable. I'm reminded of the Valley of Tears from the Yom Kippur. Where the Syrian T55 and T62 tanks didn't have the range of the Israeli Centurions, the latter picking them off like flies before they could get close enough to engage. Agreed, the Israelis did eventually take high losses, but only after they were essentially swarmed. The Syrians in contrast took huge losses. Ultimately they were defeated by a smaller force with superior technology. It's a war, both sides have a say and no system is invulnerable. It's inevitable that the Western amour sent to Ukraine will suffer losses. The trained crew survived, get another tank. I'd be interested to know if there is any kill ratio data. Not sure if there has been any real tank on tank combat. It seems that most are destroyed by AT gunners or immobilised by mines and EIDs then picked apart by drones after that. But, a win is a win.

One of the better ideas for the challenger is the top armour, it's a lot thicker than an tank of it's era, and was designed that way. Makes a change for the MOD to have a bit of fore thought!

The main point to the difference between a Chall 2 and a T-90 is the crew survived in the Chall 2. They are far less likely to survive in a T-series tanks. UA has lost Leo 2's. But the crews survived. Tanks can be replaced experienced crews are harder to replace as russia is finding out.

So , tank hits mine , tank immobilised, stationary tank gets hit while immobilised , crew bail out and survive. Now let's have a think about how many Russian tanks that have had their turrets popped like champagne corks since this awful conflict began and remember that the survival chances in these vehicles as incredibly bad .

I'm a vet and very proud of the Chally but "the most modern and sophisticated targeting system in the world" is a bit of a reach. This was true 30 years ago and with updates the TOGS is still good certainly better than the obsolete three generation old available for civilian purchase systems the Russians are fielding. But with the newer digital battlefield management systems fitted to the latest Abrams, Leopard and LeClerk is in a different league massively reducing crew work load while improving situational awareness the two biggest factors in a tank's success in battle.

Been rumoured for over a year now that Ukraine will receive 200+ Challenger 1s from Jordan plus supporting Engineering vehicles.

The UK supplied 12 x C2 Tanks not 14, the damaged one was recovered and repaired. UKR forces avoid exposing C2's in low benefit actions but seemingly deploy them in high benefit lower risk environments for max effect. The C2, like all tanks of this genre is designed for speed, manoeuvrability, fire power and crew protection but with great emphasis on the latter which, combined with the fire control systems and gun range make them significantly more lethal than Russia tanks but definitely not invulnerable.

19K M1 M1A1, separated after the first desert war. On the boarder and the gap we dug in just as described. No MBT is armored equally all around. As you noted they are rather vulnerable with softer bellies. Others spots besides the glacis is the rear body, turret top, body sides and tracks. The heaviest armor is the front deck, turret front and sides. This is why the Javelin attacks the way it does.

can safely say if it was a british force then the tank would not have been abandoned as there would have been support straight away, plus Dark Tech get your facts right before going to print as it was not destroyed by a Kornet .

Awesome tank. Hopefully it’s has added EW attributes. In this 21c everything seems to be developing quickly .

The Challenger 2 was NOT lost it was disabled, if you look at the images again (not the Russian one they kept showing) of the burning Challenger 2 it is fully in tact so yes it was disabled but not lost the burning is from the external fuel tanks the Ukrainians put on the back of the tank and a tank expert said the tank could be back out in a week or less

The new one is to be called "It'll be a Challenge to get the funding"

It's a shame this channel is no longer impartial.

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Great tank

This whole tanks for Ukraine thing seems more of a propaganda exercise than a tactical one. It seems that Ukraine does not have the capability to support these vehicles in combat, both tactically and logistically.

A lot of people on this thread have never read 1984.................................

As A Canadian Army guy in 1992, I had the pleasure of seeing the Challenger AND the Chieftain side by side. During an international Ex. 🇨🇦Army Veteran

Any tank will get messed up by triple mines, 150mm artillery, atgm, and kamikaze drones(homing rpg/artillery shells). When the battlefield is very visible from above.

It wasn’t exclusively British didn’t the omanis have some? Or was that the chally 1

The Chally 2 is a beast of a tank.

In one of my old Regts, I was part of the garrison unit familiarisation team where we would show new garrison members what, as an Engineer unit were, our capabilities. Tankers were always of the opinion that they were invulnerable in their nice little tanks, that was until they watched our demonstrations and videos🤣

Did i miss something ? The Ukrainian Tank that Scored a Direct Hit from an Impossible Distance

The lower front hull gets addon armour. Always had it too. It was sent straight into urban combat too.

As far as I'm aware though we're going to be upgrading a lot of those Mk2's to Mk3's rather than building Mk3's from scratch so I'm not sure there will be a surplus of old Mk2's to donate.

Tanks are for war so therefore they get destroyed but I guarantee that crew most likely survived unlike alot of t series tanks that turn their crews into bologna mist

First wave...over burn...a lot... Second wave... other story.... Last wave... other story..

It's not just a sniper rifle... It's a sniper rifle that fires 4 kilogrammes of Composition B... 😈😈😈 (CompB = RDX + TNT)

Deep respect for the inbuilt tea kettle.

11min 44secs... Thats a picture of the Challenger 2 from Iraq that was destroyed by Friendly fire. Hesh round hit the commanders open hatch.

recap, never use a device how it's not mend to be used. if it is a sniper you don't go charging with it but dig it in and use it as a sniper. Same goes for a wrench that not fit the bolt, you will end up with bloody fingers

You realize of course that at one point, you showed a photo of an M72 Russian tank for a disabled Challenger tank.

got a question for a tanker, could pushing a car or two while controlled by the tanks movements, like a dolly but pushing, would that work for clearing mines? yes you gotta have a heavy load, it slows you down yeah yeah, i`m talking in an active zone and you don`t got a minesweeper, if so ill design it and send it to darpa, since they love my stuff.. look at the variable lift surface aircraft, drone was revealed, which in the future will have "shutters" for lack of a aeronautical term which will increase fuel eff. and payload cap., not to mention it still has flaps and stuff for low alt/speed, and that compressed air control system for hyper/high hypersonic flight, also if anyone here works for dapra. just ask, im bored.

Some Leclerce vidoes sneaked in...and some british soldiers fighting in Ukraine... that's very sloppy editing

I’m just curious why the challenger lost only 1 tank to friendly fire in Iraq. Yet it’s the SAME story with the Abram’s only loosing 1 tank to friendly fire in Iraq..Sounds to familiar

Sniper tank 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I'm biased but I think out of the 3 NATO main battle tanks, the Challenger 2 is better suited to the Ukrainian theatre of war than either the Leopard 2 or Abrahams, which are both excellent tanks with their own strengths.

Oh la la, be careful, the pseudo resistance of the Challenger II's armor comes only from its 11-tonne over-armor, but all tanks with this over-armor become super strong, nothing exceptional, it is too heavy with 74 tons for 1200 HP (Leclerc = 58 tons for 1500 HP) it is quite slow, 59 km/h without over-armor, 56 km/h with over-armor, its rifled barrel has a firing range of between 400 and 500 shots, after the grooves are too worn! hence the switch to a smoothbore barrel on the Challenger 3! The rifled barrel is not more precise than a smoothbore barrel, on the rifled model, it is the grooves which cause the rotation of the ammunition, on a smoothbore model, it is the ammunition which upon release deploys fins which will cause the rotation of the ammunition!

feedback of its efficacy for upgradeds and orders

My favourite tank and at the end of this vid as said the Challenger 2s story is not fininshed with it also continuing with the new Challenger 3 tank with photos of the new prototype coming out the other day.

Losing one tank is nothing. Bait, switch nonsense…

challenger 2 , highesr crew survivability rate of any MBT has the highest KD of any MBT and held record for longest tank on tank kill for over 20 years, also the only tank to take 32 RPG hits and kept her crew safe and was repaired and put back in service, any one who says chally 2 is not the best tank is just trying to cope

Advantage and innovation are short lived on a battle field. New tactics or equipment quickly remove your safety edge. It's simply a grotesque and heartbreaking struggle that must be endured. I grieve for those who are lost, and even more for those who survive and witness misery that no person should ever absorb. For all of the men, woman and civilians there, I mourne.....but, the alternative is even more unimaginable. Slava Ukrain, Slava humanity.

The only way to produce a tank that is indestructible is to make it stationary. Stationary objects are able to be out flanked.

I never fancied the tankies preferring the life of infantryman that said i along with several of my mates were very gratefull to be able to take cover behind one whilst it took a proper beasting from small arms and rpg hits. The guys were awsome putting themselves where we needed them and whilst i still wouldn't fancy it even with my shot knees and back i have nothing but admiration for their consumate professionalism and imense gratitude....... All wankers though 😂......👍

Giving Ukraine 14 out of 400 tanks -- and not equiped with the extra armour... Whom else is the UK preparing to fight, that she kept 386 tanks to herself?

On Balkan this tank Is not be!!!On Ukranian for now ,he dont have any batle!!! On Bosna and Kosovo Chalinger not be,because NATO not have force on Land,and Kosovo not have force,only force on Kosovo be a Serbian Force and only he have tanks T-72,T-84!!! Chalinger not be in one batle on Balkan this Is bulshit!!!

This is really bad propaganda that shouldn't feature on this channel. The Chally is not a "Sniper" tank. It's actually got one of the lowest velocities of any modern MBT because the British refuse to stay up to date with the latest tank technology. Angled armor, whats that? Smooth bore guns, what the heck is that? Transmissions capable of exceeding 20mph, What on earth are you talking about? Just stop.

@04:18 is this ditch occurrence by any chance same as Operation Room described couple days ago to save one ditch Challenger2 under heavy enemy fire.

challenger 3 gun, is a down grade, on a rifled barrel, it wont have the range or the accuracy, in favour of cheap universal ammo!

It would seem that the secret is to continually adapt to the battlefield. I hope our tank designers are taking notes but given the dominance of drones and new handheld missiles we might be thinking to drop tanks.

Hard to take this channel serious now days, so much hyperbole, everything is "unparalleled" & "unstoppable".

Glacis is not pronounced /glas-sis/ or /glay-sis/ but is pronounced /gla-see/ (being a French word).

I know the moderators voice, the footage is inaccurate, this guy has countless conspiracy channels

To be honest, any armored vehicle with a 105mm to 120mm main gun can be called a Sniper Tank, even the Ukrainians have made the claim the 105mm main gun on the AMX-10 RC as a Sniper Tank.

So if losing 1 tank is a catastrophe, what does that say about the battle of Kursk in 1943?

However if we listen to the English it's the best tank in the world not sure!!!! They are very big mouths, there is no point in making fun of the French.👑

I love how any video daring to suggest the challenger 2 is a capable tank it gets downvoted so much LOL wehraboos and war thunder players really dont like the machine 🤣

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The glacis plate is where we aim at in World of Tanks. Heavy Tanks that have the smallest glacis plate to aim at are the best. The Tiger 1 is the best in that area as there is no glacis plate to aim at all.

Apart from the breathless overdramatic narration, the comments seem to suggest that the production was very poorly researched. You really need to do much better than this to be credible.

Pleeease, no more monologues. Just give the facts without trying to poeticise.

Those aren't even close to chain guns at 2:45, big guy. The only thing they have in common is being 7.62 firearms.

Although it was killed but it was not in a tank versis tank because the Russian tanks are death traps for there crews unlike the challenger where there tankers live to fight another day!

But it come standard with ejecting turret like the Russian ones all Russian tanks have cosmonauts crewing them

Sniper tank? Is the message that the rifled 120mm in the UK tank is better and more presise than the 120mm smoth bore US/DE gun or the 125mm vice versa RUS guns?

So far Russia has lost over 8,000 tanks. Britain has lost one. The British army, navy and air force is still totally intact. Russia is on the point of collapse. It will take Russia 25 years to replace all the lost equipment, if the money can be found.

AT 4.22 its Ambrams tank

The Chellenger 2 has a smoothbore gun, optimal HESH. Hence the long range kills vs APFSDSDU.

I FEEL LIKE ANYONE NAMED BEN SHOULD ONLY EVER BE ABLE TO BE NUMBER 2, AND IDEALLY NOT RANKED AT ALL 😂😂😂

Does this come as a surprise ? One to two inches plain steel at the bottom. The Bradley is two inches everywhere. Just an APC with a 25 mm gun, really. (The Humvee is just a jeep, really.)

People should quit acting like they found the weakspot on the Challenger 2 already ! They why to take them out or their weakspots is somthing they have in common with every tank there is ! Thats because haveing been designed in the cold war there were no such a threat as drone or top attack ammo ! The most threat came from the front which meant that most of the armor would be concentrated there leaveing less for sides , rear and roof /bottom ! All tanks from that eara are vunerable to modern threats including Leopard 2/Abrams / Leclerc/ Ariete / K 2 Black panther and Merkava !

The poster neglected to say that the only loss in the Iraq war was friendly fire of course from the trigger happy Americans. It was more than once too. Their A-10 and Apache crews were irresponsible.

besides the one lost, are they even used in combat? Haven't seen any footage

🙏🇺🇸🇺🇦❤

I generally like this style of info video, but what pisses me off about them is the poor clip management, and by that I mean not following the story with the correct video clip to what's being said. In one part, for example, they were talking about the Ukrainian tankers and clearly showing British grunts on Copehill Down with a chally in Berlin paint colours. Another part it was talking about interviews with Ukrainian tankers and showing a badged RTR tanker. The 'continuity' is atrocious.

Its not the tank but the “team” that the tank operates in.

While film of drones seem to be picking up most of the likes and the clicks it seems to me that many of the tanks and other vehicles destroyed by drones are already abandoned and static after having hit a mine and the drones are acting as scavanger's to tidy up the battlefield and stop any recovery of the vehicles. While other vehicles also stopped by mines are finished off by artillery or as per the lost Ukrainian Challenger a ATGM. Fact that Russian Infantry now seem to be riding on top of APC to get further away from mines rather than inside the vehicle would also tend to indicate that its mines which most worry a lot of troops when they try and advance. As for the best way for the Ukraine to use the Challenger its probably not as a breakthrough tank, at over 70 tons with all the extras added its just too big and heavy for Ukrainian bridges and bridging equipment for starters. But it was designed to block Russian breakthroughs - so if the Russians ever get through the mine fields and other forward defences the Challenger could be really handy in the natural evironment of the British Army and its tanks - the last ditch.

A challenger was damaged in Southern Iraq by another challenger in friendly fire, seems like the only enemy a Challenger has is another Challenger

Neither Britain or America would use MBT has they have been used in the Ukraine.

If you actually listen to the narrative, the Challenger 2 was not lost but damaged, the crew were shaken but not stirred, the tank recovered and repaired in 6 hours. About the only thing that can stop a Challenger is BV failure. A vehicle with a defective BV is declared unfit for purpose; the crew cannot brew tea.

Full of bragging but end up fleeing or dying.

The tank is fine .. but for main battle tanks especially .. there needs to be combined-arms tactics employed .. with intel, IFV's, mine-sweepers, air assets, artillery, and infantry all working together. This piece-meal approach is not the way.

Bye bye Brit Tanks. More like No Tanks

its a BRITISH tank in use of ukraine army. not ukrainian tank. only sort of "ukrainian tank" is t-84 oplot which ukraine produced like 6 pieces.

No matter the machinery, a great battlefield Commander that can read the field can change the outcome. Especially if he's on the flanks.

IDK 3-4 years ago when i accidentally discovered this channel YES, but now ! and last year or two i have a feeling that there are no more secrets, that all there is left are commercials* for the masses.. Shame what seemed to be nice, sometimes with very detailed and specific infos, i knew..! but i did not know it, that kind of channel.. be it history or some future military tech projects.. A niche channel indeed it was (even with x100 audio speed xD) what i want to say.. and now* it is not..

I've always thought the Challenger 2 looked the part, the extra large turret shape makes it look better than all the others including the very nice looking Leopard, but looks mean absolutely nothing for a tank, and with todays modern anti tank weapons no tank is immune, its all about how many attempts will it take to destroy a tank, Russian tanks have been on average 1 hit 1 kill, but their main problem is the crew hardly ever survives, I think this is the biggest difference between Western tanks, they put extra thought into trying to save the crew, training a tank crew isn't a problem if you only lose the odd tank, but looking at Russian loses they don't seem to care how well trained the crew is, if you look at how poor the new tank crews are performing and the daft but deadly mistakes they make, it's a waste of time trying to use a tank now for Russia, with old models, new inexperienced crews with zero battle plan Russia has almost made the tank obsolete.

Tanks are full of weak spots, the main difference is the challenger 2 isn’t a jack in the box tank unlike all of the Russian stuff. One hit anywhere and it sheds weight by ejecting it’s turret.

that "insane sniper tank" didnt last an hour on the battlefield before it was blown up as it was making its way to the frontline, you're reading that right it never even made it to the frontline beforre the russians blew it up along with several other vehicles in that convoy... They havent been seen in combat since because of the embarrassment it caused the UK Gov as they had been bragging for decades now about how none of these tanks had ever been destroyed by enemy fire (only friendly fire incidents) and how these would totally be game changers and win them the vaunted counter offensive. That "counter" offensive was a complete and total failure and they managed to lose territory during it and even more when the russians began advancing as soon the ukrainians stopped attempting assaults which is why avdiivka is in the process of falling as the media and other shills here on youtube try and claim the ukrainians are totally holding out and will win exactly like they did while bakhmut failed and counter offensive failed.....

think you will find that its british tank