FV4401 Contentious

Contentious I
Contentious I, The Tank Museum, Bovington (2010)
Type	Air-portable tank destroyer
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	Prototype only
Used by	British Army
Production history
No. built	possibly up to three constructed
Specifications
Length	8.5 m (27 ft 11 in)
Width	3.1 m (10 ft 2 in)
Crew	2
Main armament	Ordnance QF 20 pounder
Engine	Rolls-Royce B range
Suspension	Hydraulic elevation control
Operational range	500 miles (planned)[1]

Contentious I was a British air-portable tank destroyer testbed which came about in the late 50s as part of Project Prodigal, a huge overlapping project aimed at the future generation of British vehicles. The Contentious project is often misattributed the “FV4401” title, but this designation was merely used for an earlier design which was not directly connected to the Contentious I, though lessons learned from the FV4401 were applied to successor vehicles.^[2]

At least one Contentious I has been constructed and tested, although no production vehicles were built or put into service as it was never intended to be more than a testing vehicle.^[2]