General Main Battle Tank Technology Thread:

Turkish-Indonesian "medium" tank Harimau at the exhibition Indo Defense 2018













https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3410184.html

New turret for the Challenger 2 tank

At the Defense Exhibition Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2019, held in London from September 10 to 13, 2019, the British joint venture Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), recently created by the German group Rheinmetall and the BAE Systems corporation, presented a demonstrator of the radical modernization of the British main tank Challenger 2 for the long-running program of the British army Challenger 2 Life Extension Project (LEP). RBSL's proposal is to install a new turret on the tank with the Rheinmetall Rh 120 L55A1 120 mm smoothbore tank gun.

 At the DSEI-2019, a tank demonstrator is displayed, equipped with a new turret model (the actual tower developer is Rheinmetall). The upgraded tank will also be equipped with completely new fire control, surveillance and communication systems, and the DM11 programmable high-explosive fragmentation round will be included in the ammunition of the new 120 mm smoothbore gun. 1200 hp diesel engine perkins It is also supposed to be replaced by a German MTU of 1,500 hp.











https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3769240.html

Tests of the 130-mm Rheinmetall tank gun

The German group Rheinmetall has distributed photos and videos of tests of its promising 130-mm smooth-bore L51 tank gun installed in a new turret with an automatic loader on the chassis of the British main tank Challenger 2. This combination was created as part of another proposal for the long-running program of the British army to modernize these tanks Challenger 2 Life Extension Programe (LEP). A prototype of a promising 130-mm smoothbore tank gun Rheinmetall L51, installed in a new turret with an automatic loader on the chassis of the British main tank Challenger 2 (c) frame from Rheinmetall video

Recall that in 2019, the British joint venture Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL), created by Rheinmetall and BAE Systems Corporation, presented a demonstrator of the modernization option for the British Challenger 2 tank under the British Army Challenger 2 Life Extension Project (LEP) with the installation of a new tower with 120 -mm smoothbore tank gun Rheinmetall Rh 120 L55A1 (the actual developer of the tower itself is also Rheinmetall). Now a variant with the promising 130-mm L51 tank gun, which is being developed by Rheinmetall, is also presented, although the likelihood of the British choosing a new 130-mm cannon, which is actually only in the initial stage of development, seems unlikely.

Rheinmetall's advanced 130mm smoothbore tank gun, originally designated Next Generation (NG) 130, was first presented at Eurosatory 2016 in Paris in June 2016. Field tests of the first prototype ("technology demonstrator") of the 130-mm cannon began in 2019, and a Rheinmetall spokesman reported that by November 2019, about 80 rounds of the first prototype gun had been fired at the range, and that the production of the second had begun. a prototype gun with certain design changes.

The developer said the 130mm gun has a 51 caliber (L51) barrel and uses new high-strength steel and a chrome-plated barrel. The gun is equipped with a vertical wedge breech, an electric mechanism for firing a shot and an increased chamber volume, which allows the use of a larger charge to obtain a higher initial velocity and, therefore, higher armor penetration characteristics. According to the representative, the gun barrel has an insulating casing and a barrel bend control system. The barrel of the 130 mm cannon has an actual length of 6.63 m, and the total weight of the gun is 3000 kg, including retractable mechanisms, but without mounting elements for installation in the turret.

A spokesman for Rheinmetall stated that the chamber of the first experimental gun NG 130 has a volume of 15 liters and a design pressure of 880 MPa, but that “thanks to the experience and knowledge gained during testing in real time, this data will be changed in the next stage of development.”

First 130 -mm round, developed by Rheinmetall, is an APFSDS-T armor-piercing projectile with a detachable tray (APFSDS-T) with a semi-combustible sleeve, a new high-energy powder charge classified as insensitive to detonation, and a new improved long-length tungsten armor-piercing core with increased armor penetration.







https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4102586.html

Leave it to the Germans to deliver the expensive, over-engineered bespoke solution to a problem. This 130 mm Rheinmetall smoothbore might just have what it takes to crack the T-14, but I doubt customers would be thrilled when they learn how much more they would have to pay for this singular capability. Not only would they have to pay for the entire logistics of an entirely new proprietary calibre, they would have to either buy in the Franco-German MGCS (when it arrives), or invest in an extensive rebuild of legacy MBTs, which is not as expensive, but could still see the budgets of mid-size economies strained, especially when everyone is in the middle of a transitional period form legacy cold war equipment to new millennium designs.

Still, as capable as the gun looks, it seems to me the German designers made an inefficient (from my POV) design choice in the elongated cartridge. The dimensions of the cartridge would preclude stowage below the turret ring, which leaves only the bustle. The problem is, if you have main gun ammo in the bustle, you also have to have to armor the turret to the level you would have if there are crew members inside. This makes any attempt at an unmanned turret superfluous when its going be as heavy as a manned turret design anyways. Of course, the idea does have a merit: the 1.3 m long cartridge can potentially house a sub-projectile longer than 1 m, and with ammo stowage in the bustle you can fire at an absurd rate compared to dual-feed carousel autoloaders. Western tankers still stuck in the fulda gap mentally might think that worth the drawback of having a vehicle with less operational mobility, but I doubt the rest of the world would share that assessment.

Possible layouts of the next-gen American MBT:



https://twitter.com/TrompBK/status/1327744035071660032

Isos wrote:What's the weight of this version ? They are going wild like Nazi and their huge project. A8 will be 100t if they keep like that.

APS means you can reduce the armor against HEAT and make it specifically against only APFSDS.

It may be a good tank but to use it will be quite a nightmare.

Dunno. Probably closer to 70 than 60 tons. Still, this further proves that the old saw about NATO tanks being impervious to ATGMs from the front is just unsubstantiated tosh. Why else would they bother with integrating the Trophy with difficulty when the base Leopard 2A7 has supposedly great armor on its own?

German Leopard 2 tanks will receive the Israeli Trophy active protection complex

Chinese heavy IFV:



Turret looks to be Bakcha-U derivative. There's three RCWS in total, one at the top of the turret, and interestingly enough, two on either side at the back. Fuel drums are also attached at the back which could imply some sort of alternative means of getting out other than the ramp, possibly a clamshell type door with an upper half that swings upwards and a lower half that swings downwards.

Twitter user xmszeon's Object 499A Nota model.


Note the location of the coax (more like parallax, really) on the starboard side of the gun. The T-14 should have a gun at the same location only hidden behind the shroud and exposed with a tiny slit.

If ever some retard appears and says the current firepower suite of the Leopard 2s are in parity let alone overmatch versus modernized Russian armor:

Be it resolved by the Committee on Defense:

The Federal Government is requested,

to include in the 2021 budget the residual development and qualification of the 120mm KE2020Neo ammunition for the Leopard 2 CPC and to conclude a contract without delay. A report on implementation is to be submitted to the Defense Committee by March 31, 2021 at the latest.

Substantiation:

1. The L55 120mm tank gun system in use today in conjunction with the KE DM63 is no longer capable of successfully engaging the modernized portion of the Russian KPz fleet (several thousand vehicles) in the duel situation.

2. development of new 120 mm ammunition (KE2020Neo) would significantly reduce the capability gap to VJTF 2027 and provide the technological basis for closing this gap.

3. the current generation Leopard 2 main battle tank currently uses a KE ammunition with a penetrator technology dating back to 1995. modern reactive armor (Explosive Reactive Armour; ERA) such as the 3rd generation ERA (Relikt), which are and will be retrofitted to Russian main battle tanks even of older design (e.g.use in KPz T72B3, KPz T90M/MS), can no longer be successfully engaged with the existing KE ammunition. Therefore, there is an acute capability gap of the entire Leopard fleet in Germany and in the worldwide 120 mm user community including all NATO partners.

https://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/19/233/1923326.pdf
pp. 5-6