The Chieftain AVRE, Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineer, is a variant of FV4201 Chieftain Main Battle Tank, which was originally designed to enter service as FV4203 in the late 1960s. In 1986, the Engineer Workshops of 40 Army Engineer Support Group converted 12 Chieftain Main Battle Tanks at their base in Willich, Germany.

It wasn’t until 1989 that an official based Chieftain AVRE program was undertaken by Vickers Defence Systems at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The contract was to produ...ce 48 vehicles, with the first two prototypes appearing in 1991 and production running on until 1994. The conversion of current Army stock was carried out by Vickers Defence System Leeds.