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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…

You’ve asked for it, and the Army has heard you.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday announced during a trip to Fort Hood, Texas, that soldiers will be able to roll the sleeves on the Army Combat Uniform.

But don’t start rolling your sleeves just yet, Army officials said. Milley is calling for a 10-day pilot at Fort Hood with the intention of continuing it for the rest of the Army.

Milley’s announcement is so popular that soldiers at Fort Hood are already rolling their sleeves, Army officials said.

via www.armytimes.com

This is good news, but also an indictment of the sclerotic nature of what our military has become.

A 10 day pilot program? Only one post?

Here's a thought, GEN Milley. You're the Chief of Staff. Just put out an ALARACT message saying that pending an update to AR670-1, sleeves may be rolled up.

This isn't fielding a new tank.

What’s really depressing is each class of ship is still in service with the Coasties.

Most of you know that the Army’s AAFSS competition yielded the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne, which was later cancelled, leading to the AH-64 Apache.

What you may not have known is that the AH-56 wasn’t the only entry into the competition.

Very short, but very interesting look at soldiers of the Japanese Army. I’m just guessing, but it’s probably from the late 1930s.

On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the enlistment of riflemen to fill ten companies. These riflemen would be the first “regulars” in the Army, as opposed to militiamen of the various colonies. In addition to the Army’s birthday, June 14 is also the birthday of the Infantry Branch.  The Adjutant General, Finance, Engineers, and Quartermaster corps would be established on June 16, 1775. Interestingly, it wouldn’t be until November of 1775 that Artillery was established, and December of 1776 for Cavalry (now Armor).

You may recall the video we posted a while ago of three Humvees crashing to the ground during a less than wholly successful heavy drop during training in Germany. We still don’t know the results of that investigation, but here’s a 1967 Army training video that shows the basics of what a Parachute Rigger does, both in preparing parachutes for people, and for heavy equipment. It’s almost a half century old, but the techniques, and indeed, much of the equipment, are still pretty much the same.