Rheinmetall (Germany) will create a 130-mm cannon for the newest European tank by the middle of this decade. The weapon already exists, but still to be finalized.
Gerhard Heiming writes about this in the article, published by the German edition Europäische Sicherheit & technology.
The timing of the completion of the work is coordinated with the development schedule of the future European MGCS tank (Main Ground Combat System). According to plan, the conceptual choice of weapons should take place by the end 2022 of the year, and the demonstration phase is scheduled for 2024 year. The competitor of the German gun is the development of the French company Nexter - a 140-mm tank gun..
Rheinmetall estimates, there are no other projects on the market, requiring an accelerated pace of creation of a cannon of caliber 130 mm.
It was this caliber that was chosen as the most optimal using mathematical modeling.. It gives the best combination of high precision and high kinetic energy of the projectile.. Also taken into account about 50 other parameters, capable of influencing these characteristics, among which the most important are the diameter of the turret turntable, recoil force and barrel length.
The first demonstrator of the 130-mm cannon was manufactured in 2016 year and demonstrated at the Eurosatory exhibition. The reason for this rearmament was the creation in Russia of the T-14 "Armata". In Europe they do not hide, what is the tank, able to withstand the Russian T-14.
used photos:https://twitter.com/RheinmetallAG
