Vickers Mk.7

The Vickers Mk.7 is a tier 8 Premium MBT originating from the United Kingdom and is available for gold in the Armored Warfare web shop. It is essentially a heavily armored British turret mounted on a Leopard 2 chassis that has also been up-armored. In real life, the vehicle was designed and proposed by the Vickers company to replace the Challenger 1 series of main battle tanks in British military service. The tank boasts good armor, mobility, a special camo with decals, decent view range, and a stock level 5 crew.

Player Recommendations
The Vickers is a good jack of all trades but master of none, depending on play style and tiering. In a match where it is top tier, it can use its armor to brawl or push. In a match where it is bottom to mid-tier, it can easily offer second line or sniping and be a good hull down fighter, flank, or scout. However, like most vehicles in the Leopard line or using a Leopard 2 chassis even a bit too much angling of the side can allow for penetration by enemy fire.

Pros

 * Premium tank with premium credit and reputation earnings
 * Comes with unique camo and decals, a level 5 crew, as well as a high camo value
 * Permanently available in the web shop for gold
 * Accurate gun that can be used for sniping if required

Cons

 * Hull traverse can be a little sluggish
 * Side and rear armor are extremely weak
 * Turret ring is somewhat exposed

Upgrade Suggestions
Premium vehicles come fully upgraded.

Retrofit Suggestions

 * Improved Gun Breech
 * Air Induction Precleaner
 * Augmented Optics
 * Pioneer Toolkit

Commander and Crew Skill Suggestions
Commander: Philipp Holzklau or Freja Højbjerg

Driver: Off-road Driving, Spin to Win

Gunner: Do the Twist, Quick Draw

Loader: Rapid Fire, Explosive Shells

Upgrades
Premium vehicles come fully upgraded.

History
Class: Main Battle Tank (Prototype) Developed: 1985 Service: N/A Vehicles Built: 1 Operators: N/A For many years, Vickers has been a major armor producing company, having developed a number of successful export tank designs, including the Vijayanta or the Vickers Mk.3 MBT. But in the 1980s, its fortunes changed and the company hit a dry patch. In response to the situation, Vickers started working on another Main Battle Tank intended for export. The tank was supposed to be advanced enough to compete with the existing generation of MBTs but also affordable with the target group consisting of mostly third world countries that, for whatever reason (usually because of the price), couldn&#39;t operate advanced western MBTs but were unwilling to purchase Soviet tech. In the mid-1970s, the British did come up with a new type of composite armor known as Chobham armor, named after the place where it was developed. Vickers wanted to create a very light aluminum hull and to make it capable of carrying the Chobham armor upgrade. On top of it, they&#39;d mount a new, rather large, steel turret that they rather unimaginatively called the Universal Turret with the option to carry Chobham armor. The turret was considerably more protected than the hull and was designed to be customizable and could carry several types of weapons. The tank was named Vickers Mk.4 Valiant. The Valiant was a failure. Undeterred, Vickers tried again, this time with the more ambitious goal of producing a tank that would replace the Challenger 1 MBT in British military service. The aluminum hull of the Valiant was generally a problem and a replacement was needed along with an improved version of the Valiant&#39;s Universal Turret. The latter was developed in the early 1980s. Using it in combination with the Mk.4 Valiant hull produced a vehicle called Vickers Mk.7. But the Valiant hull was unsatisfactory and something else was needed, something with far better protection. In the end, Vickers decided to use a modified Leopard 2 hull fitted with Chobham armor. They fitted it with the Mk.7 Universal Turret armed and called this hybrid Vickers Mk.7/2. A single prototype was built in 1985 and the British had a look at it, but decided that they didn’t want that and no foreign customers were attracted to the pricey vehicle either. Vickers, however, used the lessons they learned from its development later with the Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank, the last British MBT designed and built in the United Kingdom.