Changed the story slightly so it should now work out.
By the end of WW1 it was inevitable that the Tank would become the Queen of Battle on land. It slowly evolved with few major changes to layout – this changed with the Vickers light tanks of the 1930s which had the engine moved from the rear to the front, beside the driver. This remained the style of light armoured vehicles like the 1960’s FV-101 Scorpion.
Larger tanks with large engines remained with the old-style design (engine at rear, turret and driver at the front for his visibility) mainly due to a lack of need to change until something on the battlefield made them think again.
Towards the end of WW2 countries experimented with small anti-tank rockets for infantry on the battlefield – the UK had the PIAT & Germany the Panzerfaust. Developments in anti-tank rocketry continued with little real progress. Because of this, tanks remained in the standard design pattern with the UK’s Centurion Tank simply being a larger size vehicle.
But a few designers were thinking in advance, one was the designer of the WW2 Archer SPG which parked in reverse to fire its gun - this thinking led to the Centurion II.
The engine was now to the front providing some extra protection for the crew, driver behind the engine, turret in the middle for weight distribution & an area at the back for extra ammunition storage or emergency transport of a few troops. The vehicle evolved with a better engine with better cooling enabling the radiator grills to be eliminated, creating a lower, more ballistic frontal section.
In 2026 the new Russian Front against Ukraine went quite hot with Russian troops pushing further west. Russia’s new “Hyper” anti-tank missiles were taking horrendous casualties of tank crews in conventional tanks with limited frontal armour protection.
The UK finally decided to do more in supplying better equipment. Their contribution being the Centurion II in its Mk3/U form.
