A Challenger 2 tank has been penetrated by a roadside bomb in Iraq leaving the driver with serious injuries, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
A spokesman said the tank had been on routine duties in a western district of Basra when it was hit on 6 April.
It is believed to be the first incident where a Challenger tank has been breached by such an attack.
The driver of the Challenger has now been sent back to the UK for further medical treatment.
An MoD spokesman said the Challenger tank was "well armoured but in an operational theatre it's not the case that you can have absolute protection".
The Challenger 2 is the UK's main battle tank, and its key function is to destroy enemy tanks.
It has a good reputation for reliability, although it has experienced significant problems during military exercises in desert conditions.
The UK has almost 400 Challenger 2s, some of which have been used in Bosnia and Kosovo and have a four man crew.
In addition to its Advanced Armour Technology the Challenger 2 also has a nuclear, chemical and biological attack resistant compartment for the crew.
Professor Michael Clarke from King's College's Defence Studies centre said the Challenger 2 tank's armour is usually "inviolable".
He said: "Most of the things on a battlefield are not much of a threat to a tank, usually.
"This is worrying, because if there are many of these sorts of very heavy penetrative Improvised Explosive Devices around in the area then no vehicle is safe."

Dorchester Armour... right??... I would be preparing a case for suing the Iranians..

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"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

Aye! 2nd generation.

Blow a few barracks up more like. Its becoming so blatent isn't it? ......"Road side bomb" My arse!

multiple cannon shells wired together or one hell of a shaped charge?

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I heard it took out the driver (he's lost both legs), penetrating the frontal armour.......Not my field.....But sounds bizzarre

FRONTAL ARMOR? holy.... hmm.. i need to study this.

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Yeh quite! I heard that on the news today ... Don't take that as red ...You know how these things can be miss reported . Another crew member was injured . The tank was damaged not knocked out was the other report ...So maybe classical miss info

hm... some estimates give Challenger 2 a bit worse HRA rating in the
lower frontal armor compared against Leopard 2A4 example. how ever,
the rest of the tank is extremely tolerant...... they hit the only "weak" spot
it has

for comparison it would certainly last against any soviet era Sabot... exept from some
rare Depleated uranium models perhaps.. anyhows.. this bomb has been Big.

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Like Exo says there's only one place this has been acquired from. I'm getting tired of using pawns.....

oh come on ..if RPGs ..cnt get scrathes on its armour ..no crudly made road side bomb cud ..

this is definatly ..more potent explosives ..

also i may make a post ..on the palastien soldiers ..firing live ammo ..on kids ..

terrible misconduct ..