The British Army and the Royal Marines embarked a Challenger 2 main battle tank from an Estonian beach onto HMS Albion as part of a military exercise.
According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, the embarkment took place during the Baltic Protector exercise that was held from 24 May to 9 July in the Baltic Sea.
The tank was taken from the beach in Valkla, Estonia, and embarked onto a landing craft utility before being transported onto the vehicle deck of HMS Albion.
This was the first time in six years the UK has embarked a Challenger 2 main battle tank.
The Challenger 2 is a third generation British main battle tank in service with the armies of the United Kingdom and Oman. It was designed and built by the British company, Vickers Defence Systems, now known as BAE Systems Land & Armaments.
To date, the only time the tank has been seriously damaged during operations was by another Challenger 2 in a friendly fire incident at Basra in 2003 when the damaged tank had its hatch open at the time of the incident.
Cover: A tank from the King’s Royal Hussars on an exercise in the UK (courtesy of the King’s Royal Hussars).
