Editing Challenger 2 (section)

===Challenger 2 contest===
As Challenger production ramped up the government was interested in marketing it to its traditional customers like [[Jordan]]. To improve its sales prospects, the tank was entered in the 1987 running of the [[Canadian Army Trophy]] for tank performance, which had historically been won many times by [[British Army]] or [[Canadian Army]] units in British tanks. In this run, however, the Challenger performed very poorly, with its units ending up at the bottom of the rankings. While this performance was dismissed by the Ministry of Defense, including in comments in the [[House of Commons]], it was a serious blow to its sales prospects. It also proved only marginally more reliable than the Chieftain, which was considered unreliable and a maintenance problem in the field, and the lack of significant improvement was much to the annoyance of the [[British Army]].<ref name=wrong/>

Vickers began considering improvements under the Improved Challenger name in November 1986. They presented their work to the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] (MoD) in March 1987. In February 1988, the MoD issued Staff Requirement 4026, or the Chieftain Replacement Programme, which called for a new design to replace those Chieftains still in service. This program compared the American Abrams (as the XM1 was now known), French [[Leclerc tank|Leclerc]] and German [[Leopard 2]], as well as Vickers' Improved Challenger. Initial studies by the [[British Army]] invariably selected the Leopard 2, which was protected as well as Challenger but had much better mobility and used the smoothbore 120&nbsp;mm gun that would give it commonality with other [[NATO]] forces. The second choice was the Abrams, in second due largely to concerns with its fuel use.<ref name=wrong>{{cite web |url=https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/challenger-2-the-wrong-tank-for-the-british-army/ |title=Challenger 2, the wrong tank for the British Army? |first=Stuart |last=Crawford |date=23 August 2018}}</ref>

After some supportive lobbying by [[David Young, Baron Young of Graffham|Baron Young]], the [[Third Thatcher ministry|Thatcher government]] chose to proceed with the Vickers entry in December 1988, giving it the official name Challenger 2.<ref name="Abrams evaluation">{{cite news |last=Lohr |first=Steve |date=20 December 1988 |title=Thatcher Picks British Tank Over Rival American Model |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/21/business/thatcher-picks-british-tank-over-rival-american-model.html |access-date=26 August 2018 |work=The New York Times |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826080812/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/21/business/thatcher-picks-british-tank-over-rival-american-model.html |archive-date=26 August 2018}}</ref>