Large Caliber Tank Guns for Lightweight Platforms

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Large Caliber Tank Guns for Lightweight Platforms; The gun versus armor dilemma
Topic Started: 1st April 2015 - 07:25 PM (9,508 Views)
Jim M	1st April 2015 - 07:25 PM Post #1
R. Sergeant Major Posts: 693 Group: Elite Member #536 Joined: Sep 26, 2014 Mood None	Excerpt from the article: 120mm low-recoil designs Rheinmetall, apart from their new series of 105mm guns, offer the 120mm L/47 lightweight low-recoil (LLR) tank gun. The system is designed to fit on vehicles of the twenty-five ton class and keep compatibility with A400M transportation.19 France’s Nexter has introduced their new 120mm L/52 FER (Faible Effect du Recul) low-recoil tank-gun designed to be adopted by vehicles of the twenty-five ton class, such as the future French EBRC armored car. The 120 FER has a twin-chamber muzzle brake and features a 550mm recoil length. These two guns are similar to Italy’s 120mm L/45 low-recoil tank gun designed by Oto Melara. The new pepperbox muzzle break and 550mm recoil length has reduced recoil mass to twenty-five tons, and the weapon is currently being offered for export on the Centauro 8x8 armored fighting vehicle on a new HITFIST turret. Denel offers the GT12 120mm gun for South Africa’s Rooikat wheeled armored fighting vehicle, which is currently armed with a 76mm gun. Israel will soon offer a low-recoil 120mm gun based on Slavin Land System’s MG253 for the Sabra main battle tank.20 One of the most successful low-recoil tank guns to date is Ruag’s 120mm compact tank gun (CTG). This gun is fifty calibers in length and has been improved with a muzzle break, having an efficiency of roughly 40%, and an increased extended recoil length – from 410mm to 500mm. Recoil mass has been decreased from 50 tons to 26 tons.21 Currently, Ruag’s 120mm CTG is being used to arm Jordan’s Falcon turret for their Al Hussein turret upgrade for the M60. The gun is matted to an unmanned (the crew is below the turret ring) narrow mantlet turret and a new autoloader which carries eleven rounds.22 It should be noted that the compact breech comes at a price of gained weight. Ruag’s gun system weighs 2,600kg compared to the 1,901kg of the M256 and the 1,100kg of Rheinmetall’s L/44. The same can be seen with Israel’s compact gun systems for their Sabra M60 upgrade – the M253, based on the M251 of the Merkava III, weighs 3,300kg. Currently, Norinco’s 120mm guns for possible T-55 upgrades weigh 2,600kg and France’s F1, used on the Leclerc, weighs 2,800kg.23 The Ruag 120mm CTG, originally designed for an indigenous Swedish main battle tank (ultimately canceled in favor of the Leopard 2A5), has also been chosen to arm the upcoming CV90120-T light tank, based on the CV9030 infantry combat vehicle. The system carries twelve ready-rounds and a further thirty-three can be stowed at the rear of the chassis.24 http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/ar/t2071.htm



Jim M	5th April 2015 - 05:05 AM Post #2
R. Sergeant Major Posts: 693 Group: Elite Member #536 Joined: Sep 26, 2014 Mood None	kurdo82 4th April 2015 - 06:25 AM the russians are the greatest experts in putting large caliber guns on lighweight platform, and all the experiences have shown that everythink above a caliber 57 mm should be put on a real tank, the military comanders tend to use large caliber platforms like tanks, something they are not developed for, the armor of a lightweight platform something between 20 to 30 ton is not even immune to 30 mm mm machine gun caliber, the ammunition for such vehicles is highly flamable, onece you achieve armore penetration you will witness a total destruction, the russians achieve to build lightweight platforms with large caliber guns by the integration of a carousel type ammunition feeding system, experiences ranging from afganistan to the donbass war show that these types opf weapon platform, like the bmp 1 with its 76 mm gun, the bmd system are not capable to tacke such punishment, leaving only the option to putmachine canon on the tanks, the koreans realizing this weakness developed the new k21 ifv armed with a bofors 40 mm canon, this systems has been specially developed to deter the attack from the bmp 3 fighting vehicle, eventhough the the main gun of the bm3 is a 100 gun tube, it may not stand a chance against the k21 as the 40 mm machine canon would simply outrange the bmp 3 main gun and penetrate the armor of the bmp 3 with ease, the best platform combination is offered by the m1a1 abrams and the merkava and they are both highly succesful despite all odds even tanks like the t-55 to t-90 are too weak looking at the threats posed by modern atgm and other tanks that why russia is investing heavily in the armata platform with a seperate armored capsule. a infantry fighting vehicle armed with a 40 mm machine canon or even a 57 machine canon is enough to give proper infantry support and if you really need something to breach walls etc, why not using low rec. guns such the m40 on a jeep. It is still enough to destroy a wall and small enough to be hidden everywhere. Nothing is "immune" on the battlefield especially the MBT because the battlefield is dominated by airpower. The Russians understood this way back in WW2 with their excellent mass produced tank the T34. The Luftwaffe (more or less) controlled the air but the Russians flooded the battlefield with what turned out to be the best tank in the war. You don't even need the "best"; you just need lots of them and you don't even need to dominate the air as long as you have a friend/ally that does. Regards, Edited by Jim M, 11th April 2015 - 10:28 AM.



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