U.S. Army photo by Private First Class Nikko-Angelo Matos, 28MAR2011.
In March 2011, the U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division’s B-Company 52nd Infantry Regiment used a NATO United Kingdom made FV4201 Chieftain tank as a TOW target, TOW as in Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided missile.
It happened on Kirkush Military Training Base, in Diyala Province, Iraq.
The Chieftain tank was made by NATO United Kingdom (U.K.), and purchased by Iran in the 1970s. The Iranian army liked the Chieftain better than their U.S. made M60A1s, and paid in advance for hundreds more, but before that order was filled The 1979 Revolution happened and all sales of NATO made weapons to Iran were eventually banned by the United States/NATO, in fact, Iran paid in advance for at least 6-hundred Chieftains which The U.K. never delivered. Not only did Iran want more Chieftains, they also paid for the development of an upgraded Chieftain called the Lion Project. In 2020, it was revealed that the British Royal Army used the money Iran spent on the never delivered 6-hundred tanks, as well as the money for the Lion Project, to develop their Challenger tank.
Iranian Chieftain sometime during The Iran-Iraq War, photo via Fars News Agency.
During the Iran-Iraq War 1980-88 (known in The Middle East as The First Gulf War), massive tank battles were fought, with both sides gaining and losing ground. Many ground vehicles were captured by Iran and Iraq, and put into use against their former owners. The Iraqi army claims to have captured as many as 75 intact Iranian Chieftains during the Iran-Iraq War.
Photo via Mehr News Agency.
By 2013, Iran had gone ahead with their own attempt at the old Lion Project, and radically modified/enlarged the hull of their Chieftains, allowing them to use a larger engine and transmission, and stronger suspension. They call it The Mobarez.
In 2015, it was revealed that so-called pro-Iranian militias in Iraq were using Iraqi upgraded Chieftains, called The Khalid. The upgrades included air conditioning as well as night vision.
U.S. Army video report, by Specialist Jesse Youngstrom, explaining why the 25th Infantry Division blew up the Chieftain:
The Chieftain was also used by Kuwait, and is still in use in Jordan, Oman, as well as Iran.
Iranian M36B1 Jackson version of the Sherman, used against Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Captured by Iraq and put on display, only to be ‘captured’ by U.S. forces and supposedly ‘repatriated’ to the United States.
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