XBradTC

By

XBradTC

·

German Rheinmetall works on new 130mm tank gun

PARIS — German defense company Rheinmetall has unveiled a prototype of a 130mm smoothbore gun for a future main battle tank (MBT). According to the company, the increase of 8 percent in caliber results in 50 percent more kinetic energy over the 120mm gun from Rheinmetall, installed in thousands of tanks worldwide. The presentation at the…

PARIS — German defense company Rheinmetall has unveiled a prototype of a 130mm smoothbore gun for a future main battle tank (MBT). According to the company, the increase of 8 percent in caliber results in 50 percent more kinetic energy over the 120mm gun from Rheinmetall, installed in thousands of tanks worldwide.

The presentation at the Eurosatory defense show, taking place in Paris this week, comes as Russia adopts a new generation of armored vehicles — including the Armata MBT — with enhanced protection and a renaissance of classical, mechanized armored forces. Furthermore the French and German ministries of defense decided to develop a joint combat vehicle as a successor to their respective Leopard 2 and Leclerc fleets. It's possible a new tank program could be launched by the two European nations sometime between 2025 and 2030.

via www.defensenews.com

It's highly unlikely the new gun proposed would fit into an existing Abrams tank turret. Heck, a turret that could carry the new tube probably wouldn't fit the existing hull.

For now, the 120mm M256 is quite capable of penetrating existing armor. But new threats are emerging, and upping firepower is the traditional way of the tank.

But bigger guns drive up the size of the tank. Which, if you're building a bigger, more expensive tank, you're incentivized to add even more protection. Which in turn drives a demand for a bigger gun…

Tags:

Responses to “German Rheinmetall works on new 130mm tank gun”

  1. Esli

    They are working on some mods to ammo for the 120mm. In my opinion, they need to pursue the STAFF (stand off, top attack, fire and forget) round they developed back in the 90s. Make top attack the standard. I’m not thinking about armor right now, however, because I am in another airborne rotation, though covering a Dutch /German task force. Pretty interesting.

    Like

  2. ultimaratioregis

    I dunno, the Abrams turret may be able to accommodate the bigger gun. It is all about the dissipation of recoil. The size of the breech mechanism needn’t be appreciably larger. But we shall see. Ans Esli has an excellent idea, to pursue the top-attack munitions of a couple decades ago might be an excellent idea.

    Like

  3. Oy

    Working on a new tank gun in a country that has basically given up on tanks is rather amusing. What do the Germans have now, 225 tanks? Yeah I guess they think they’ll sell it overseas, but is the US Army even interested in a bigger tank gun?

    Like

  4. John

    Didnt they look at 140mm in the 80s? Seems like they didnt go that way because of the size of the ammo was too large and cumbersome for the turret. But, that was with a auto-loader.

    Like

  5. Casey

    Someone is taking the Armata seriously?

    Like

  6. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    Gotta love those Germans. Always just tweaking away. Now if they would dispose of Merkel.

    Like

  7. chris green

    Why put it in a tank turret? How about using it in the open turret Tank Destroyer type role? AC-130 tank destroyer model for airborne application.

    Like

  8. Joey Jo Jo Jr.

    I love it when defense writers glibly spout off about the Russians adopting any new cutting-edge weapons system…without explaining the stark reality that they usually don’t have the resources to build more than small batches of anything new…and will likely be rolling around battlefields in souped-up T-72’s for the next fifty years or so.

    Like

Leave a comment