FV4005 Stage II
In service Never entered service - Cancelled 1957
A Centurion carrying the largest tank gun ever built, the 183 mm L4, in a thin-walled turret. One prototype, never adopted.
Built byRoyal Ordnance Factories
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
The FV4005 programme answered the fear of Soviet heavy tanks like the IS-3 with brute force: a 183 mm gun firing a 72 kg high-explosive squash-head shell said to be able to disable any tank it struck, even without penetration. Stage II mounted it in a large lightly armoured turret on a Centurion hull. Only one vehicle was completed, the Conqueror 120 mm answered the same requirement more practically, and the project ended in 1957. The rebuilt survivor is at Bovington. Recorded here as a cancelled project.
Notable actions
- None - trials vehicle