Ron5 wrote:I'm not expert by a long shot (stand in line) but I was of the thinking that RM's long 120mm with existing US Depleted Uranium darts would be superior at splashing tanks to any 120mm or 130mm gun with Tungsten rods which is all the German army can have by law.
There isn't a colossal difference between the L44 firing M829A3 and the L55 firing DM63.
The 130mm firgni its round has about 50% more capacity for penetration than either though. It's a massive upgrade.
For uses other than anti-tank, I'm not aware of any demand for a bigger gun.
That's pretty much it. With APS taking off, KEPs are becoming the solution again, and current 120 ammo is starting to get protected against. (T-14 frontal hull is estimated to be resistant with Relikt ERA even to the M829A4.)
And with the mandatory autoloader and much bigger ammo, the 130mm tank would be well down on reloads plus a crew member which the BA values.
Hard to tell. In an existing layout, defo lower (The 120mm manual loaded L55A1 version has been said to reduce the CR2 to 31 rounds) but with the autoloader and dropping the operator, who knows.
So why would the UK want a 130mm gun Challenger? especially after, as RunningBrave hints, they're trying to escape from a 20 year trap of having a unique gun and ammo to enter another potential 20 year trap of having a unique gun and ammo.....deja vu all over again
There's actually a touch choice here. CR2 Mk2 enters service approaching 2030 anyway (I know they say 2025, but good luck on that!) and both US and EU are moving to other things from then onwards anyway. Could equally the UK order the 120, then both major users move right on over to 130 or 130/whatever ETC 120 they use right away and leave the UK behind the curve all over again without major development?
There's a risk either way now that they'll have to consider.
Ron5 wrote:Reading that again, I'm not being clear. I don't think its about the tank. Just the gun and only the gun. In the context of the German French program. Nothing to do with UK.
Pretty much correct, no-one's really sure on the exact status of that vehicle yet.