Design and Development
The Vickers MBT followed on from a 34-tonne 20-pdr gunned tank design intended for export. This would be as well equipped as Centurion but substantially cheaper and with Vickers Vigilant missiles as effective. However with the appreance of the 105 mm L7 gun into the British, US and German tank designs, this light tank would have been less powerful while too large for the reconnaisance role and so a new design was required. With armour twice that of the light tank design it would still be 12 tonnes lighter than Centurion and hence more mobile. The design would use the new engine and transmission of the Chieftain tank then being developed. The development conincided with an agreement with India in 1961 to produce a tank design and help set up a factory there to produce it.
The Vickers MBT Mk 1 was designed to be a simple, low cost, but effective tank. The first prototype was completed in 1963. In 1964 one of the prototypes was sent to India.
The Vickers was made of welded rolled homogeneous armour plates. It weighed 38,600 kg, carried a 105mm gun with 44 rounds and had a top speed of 48 km/h. 70 tanks were sold to Kuwait and a large number of a modified version were made in India where the tank was called Vijayanta.
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