If you want to find a totem for the western tank, it is definitely the German Leopard 2 tank. As one of the most classic third-generation tanks in the world, it is not only equipped with Leopard 2 tanks in many European countries, but its technical indicators have become a guiding example that many countries must refer to when developing third-generation tanks. Among them, the German RH120 smoothbore tank gun has become the queen large-caliber tank gun of NATO and the European Union.
Recently, TÜV Rheinland officially launched the 130mm 130L51 tank gun. It was installed on a modified Challenger 2 tank for testing. This also means that after "practicing more than forty years of internal strength" (exploiting potential), the "A-Bunker dispute" has reopened, but this time the first offensive is the "Bunker". Z1z
has been invented since it was invented. After more than one hundred years of development, the tank has become very mature, reaching a very high level in offense and defense, and more precisely, it has entered a bottleneck stage. However, in the current "armor-bullet battle", the "bullet" has not fully gained the upper hand. Although the existing 120mm and 125mm tank guns
can basically deal with the existing main battle tanks, their performance It has been tapped to the extreme (whether it is artillery or ammunition). If the firing principle is not changed, the potential has been reached. With the arrival of the fourth-generation main battle tank represented by the T14, the existing tank guns can no longer guarantee 100% penetration of the fourth-generation main battle tank from the front, and there is an urgent need to further enhance the armor penetration power. The technical advantages of the
130L51 tank gun
must greatly increase the armor-piercing power of the tank gun, either by increasing the caliber of the tank gun, or using new concept artillery such as electrothermal chemical guns and electromagnetic guns, but these new concept artillery is still far from practical. Therefore, Ci Rhein Company chose the former and introduced the 130mm 130L51 tank gun after more than 40 years after the introduction of the 120mm caliber. Although it is not the largest in caliber (France tested 140 mm tank guns in 2016), the 130L51 tank gun has obvious advantages in terms of volume and weight, and does not require too many modifications to the existing three-generation Western tanks. Can be replaced, is the most mature large-caliber tank gun, with the conditions for loading and use at any time.
In terms of performance, this 130L51 tank barrel length is 51 times the diameter, including the weight of the brake system is 3000 kg, and the barrel itself weighs 1,400 kg. It uses a 16-liter super-large drug chamber (120L55 tank gun is 11.2 liters), launches a newly developed 130mm tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectile with a muzzle velocity of more than 1800 m/s. The muzzle kinetic energy is 50% higher than when the 120L55 tank gun fires a DM53 armor-piercing projectile. It reaches 15 megajoules, which is even larger than the 140 mm tank gun developed by Rheinmetall in the late 1980s. The quality of
plus the 130mm armor-piercing projectile core is about 27% higher than that of the 120mm DM53. In terms of conversion, the 130L51 tank gun can penetrate 1000mm thick homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 2000 meters, which is sufficient for a normal engagement distance. The T14 main battle tank that penetrated Russia. For comparison, the 120L55 tank gun fired DM53 armor-piercing shells, which can only penetrate 700 mm homogeneous steel armor at the same distance.
upgrade 130L51 tank guns need to face the challenges
things in the world are divided into two sides, there are advantages and disadvantages. Upgrading the 130L51 tank gun can suddenly bring great benefits, but the challenges that follow come one after another.
First of all, although the 130L51 tank gun uses a smaller 51 times the diameter, the length is only 30 mm longer than the existing 120L55 tank gun. However, the ultra-long barrel of more than 6.6 meters makes the tank face the problem of being blocked by the wall when the tank is fighting in a small space such as a city.
Second, the greater recoil of the 130L51 tank gun (60 tons, 20% to 25% more than the existing 120mm) requires a more effective anti-recoil device and a heavier tank chassis. Not only does it increase the cost, but for Western main battle tanks that have poor passability, it is tantamount to worsening the situation.
In addition, in order to achieve higher armor penetration power, the gun chamber needs to be increased to 16 liters, which poses a challenge to the layout of the tank turret space. How to load larger and heavier 130mm ammunition has become a problem.According to the ammunition information disclosed by Yin Company, the 130mm ammunition still adopts the traditional whole-loaded ammunition design instead of the split-loaded ammunition design. In this way, the length of
is 1300 mm. It is estimated that the weight of the ammunition exceeding 60 kg makes ammunition filling a problem. Such a large volume and weight is obviously difficult to load by manpower. Even the black uncle human flesh loader in the United States may not be able to load it. Several shots. Need automatic loading machine blessing, this way, the cost has increased.
and the increase in the caliber of the ammunition and the lengthening of the cartridges have greatly reduced the ammunition capacity of the tank. Let’s take the Leopard 2A6 as an example. The ammunition capacity of its 120mm ammunition is 42 rounds. After replacing the 130L55 tank gun, it will drop to 30 rounds. about.
PS: Although the loader is saved, the space saved is just offset by the space occupied by the autoloader, so the ammunition cannot be increased.
In addition, because the ammunition is designed for fixed loading, only a tail-chamber automatic loader can be used. Due to the size of the turret tail compartment, there are fewer ammunition waiting to be fired in the automatic loader, and the firepower continuity will also be greatly reduced. . The impact and challenges that
brings to us
As for why it involves us, because if this gun is put into mass production, it is very likely to become another royal artillery for NATO and its allies. And India may seek to install it on Arjun, so that we will have to deal with it.
is currently the only tank designed in accordance with Western standards in India. Arjun perfectly inherits the characteristics of the super-large size and super-large combat weight of Western tanks. Now it is also equipped with a 120mm rifled gun from Challenger 2, replacing the 130L51. The tank gun has no technical difficulty.
Imagine that the Germans who were engaged in the pre-research of the fourth-generation tanks were all from France. Why will the 130L51 tank gun find Britain in this experiment? You must know that this gun was researched by Germany itself and has no relationship with the United Kingdom (the United Kingdom, which has a crooked technology tree, can't help it technically). Then the subtext is self-evident, Germany is "suggesting" India. And India really has this possibility. The impact of
is coming. The 1000mm penetration of the 130L51 tank gun is extremely threatening. Even our most advanced 99A cannot be said to be 100% resistant. Then the type 15, not to mention the 96A.
Of course, modern warfare will involve joint operations and systematic operations, which has long been separated from the battle mode of queuing up in World War II. However, it is undeniable that the risk of damage to our tanks has increased. Therefore, on the one hand, we accelerate the development of the fourth-generation main battle tanks. At the same time, we must also give full play to the glorious tradition of overtaking in corners, and develop new concepts such as electromagnetic armor as soon as possible. Come out, modify the active tanks to offset the performance advantage of the 130L51 tank gun.
