Understood.
Boomer sometimes reads my mind and posts things before I can state them <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>
I was actually refering to the 140mm, perhaps it can be shorter.
I like the L55
The Link I posted talks about combining the technologies of 120/140mm guns for the next FCS:
The XM291 gun is a spin-off of the
dual-caliber approach previously adopted
by the U.S. Army. It was developed by
the Army Armament Research, Develop-ment
and Engineering Center (ARDEC)
in collaboration with Watervliet Arsenal,
and is a combination of a common rein-forced
120/140mm high-pressure breech/
chamber with a light 120mm gun tube.
This newly designed “Lightweight 120mm
Tank Main Armament System,” could
yield comparable results to the 140mm
gun at the lower performance range of
the latter. Another improvement in gun
performance could be obtained by the
use of propellant with greater surface
burning progressivity, which generates
higher pressure gradients to propel pro-jectiles.
An additional increase in gun
performance could come from a reduc-tion
in the temperature sensitivity of pro-pellants,
which will allow the increase of
burning rates at lower temperatures.
Maximum allowable chamber pressure
at normal and high temperatures can be
raised by employing higher strength im-proved
steels commonly utilized in con-struction
of gun barrels.
Advanced 120mm KE penetrators, Sen-sor
Fused Weapons (SFW), Smart tank
munitions and Smart Top Attack Weap-ons
1,2 (STAW) will soon be introduced
into the inventory. These munitions have
extended autonomous capabilities such
as independent target acquisition, identi-fication,
prioritization, maneuver control,
and improved lethality.
These improvements, impressive as
they are, will probably not lead the way
to the FCS’s main antitank armament
due to large caliber burden, ammunition
vulnerability, and the inherent limited
growth potential of solid propellants
(SP). According to basic governing ther-modynamic
laws, the velocity at which
chemical SP could accelerate a projectile
is controlled by the velocity at which a
gas could physically expand. For all
practical purposes, contemporary 120-
mm guns may ultimately reach a muzzle
velocity of 1800-2000 + m/sec. Future
140mm guns (if fielded) may reach an
extended muzzle velocity of 2100-2300 +
m/sec while their effective ‘kill’ range
will not exceed 6-7 km at best.
With industrial and logistic infrastruc-tures
already in place, backed by battle-field-
proven technology, conventional
120mm guns will remain the ‘backbone’
system in service for the next 20-30
years and beyond. They will progres-sively
continue to receive incremental
improvements until replaced, while al-lowing
development for the U.S. Army. To the
best of our information, the U.S. Army
has reluctantly given up on this promis-ing
technology in Crusader.
Edited by - Tritonal on May 02 2003 7:35 PM
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
