An Australian Army Mk 3 Centurion Type K, Army Registration Number 169041, was involved in a small nuclear test at Emu Field in Australia in 1953 as part of Operation Totem 1. Built as number 39/190 at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Barnbow in 1951 it was assigned the British Army number 06 BA 16 and supplied to the Australian Commonwealth Government under Contract 2843 in 1952.^[85]


It was placed less than 500 yards (460 m) from the 9.1 kt blast with its turret facing the epicentre, left with the engine running and a full ammunition load.^[86]
Examination after detonation found that it had been pushed away from
the blast point by about 5 feet (1.5 m), pushed slightly left and that
its engine had stopped working, but only because it had run out of fuel.
Antennae were missing, lights and periscopes were heavily sandblasted,
the cloth mantlet cover was incinerated, and the armoured side plates
had been blown off and carried up to 200 yards (180 m) from the tank.^[85] It could still be driven from the site. Had the tank been manned, the crew would most likely have been killed by the shock wave.


169041, subsequently nicknamed The Atomic Tank, was used in the Vietnam War. In May 1969, during a firefight, 169041 (call sign 24C) was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade
(RPG). The turret crew were all wounded by fragmentation as the RPG
hollow charge jet entered the lower left side of the fighting
compartment, travelled diagonally across the floor and lodged in the
rear right corner. Trooper Carter was evacuated, while the others
remained on duty and the tank remained battleworthy.^[86]


The Atomic Tank is now located at Robertson Barracks in Palmerston, Northern Territory.
Although other tanks were subjected to nuclear tests, 169041 is the
only one known to have withstood a blast and to have later fought in a
war.^[87]