In August 1981, the Nigerian government placed an order worth some £60 million with Vickers Defence Systems for 36 Vickers Mk 3 MBTs, five ARVs and six bridgelayers. In December 1978, Kenya placed a second order for 42 Vickers Mk 3 MBTs plus four ARVs which were delivered from 1981 to 1982. In 1977, Kenya placed an order for 38 Vickers Mk 3 MBTs plus three ARVs, which were all completed by late 1980. This increased the power-to-weight ratio to over 18 bhp/t, as well as increasing the maximum road speed to over 50 km/h. In 1975, Vickers replaced the original Leyland L60 engine with the Detroit Diesel 12V-71T turbocharged diesel developing 720 bhp at 2,500 rpm, but retained the TN12 transmission. In 1968, Kuwait placed an order for 70 Vickers Mk 1 MBTs which were delivered between 19. Since then India has developed and placed in production its own computerised fire-control system for this vehicle. An initial batch of 70 systems was supplied from the UK. The Vijayanta still has the original ranging machine gun but, after evaluating several systems, late in 1980 India selected the British GEC-Marconi Radar and Defence Systems, Defence Control Systems Division, SFCS 600 fire-control system for installation in the tank. Some 2,200 Vijayantas have been built in India although some reports have quoted a lower figure of 1,600 production has been phased out. The Indian factory at Avadi, near Madras, was built and the first Vijayanta (the Indian name for the Vickers tank) rolled off the production line in January 1965. Vickers began production at its Elswick works in 1964 and the first production tank was delivered to India in 1965. The first two prototypes of the Vickers MBT were completed in 1963 one was retained in the United Kingdom and the other sent to India. The Vickers proposal was accepted and in August 1961 an agreement was signed between Vickers and the Indian government under which the company would establish a factory in India for the production of the Vickers MBT. In January 1961, a team of defence experts visited Germany and the United Kingdom to examine tank designs that could be produced in India. ![]() The use of these Chieftain components in a tank weighing only 37 tonnes improved its reliability and durability. Realising that several countries would not buy such a heavy and expensive tank, Vickers designed a new 37 tonne MBT armed with the Royal Ordnance 105 mm rifled gun from the Centurion and the engine, transmission, brakes, steering and fire-control system of the Chieftain. The Chieftain MBT (covered in detail in an earlier entry) was designed to meet the requirements of the British Army during the late 1950s.
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